Serdachny scores overtime winner as Canada edges U.S. for women’s hockey worlds gold

Canada reclaimed the women’s world hockey championship from the United States with a 6-5 overtime win in Sunday’s final.

Danielle Serdachny scored a power-play goal at 5:16 of overtime to end the showdown.

The Canadians earned some revenge in Utica, N.Y., for last year’s 6-3 loss in the gold-medal game to the U.S. on home ice in Brampton, Ont.

Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored her first two goals of the tournament. Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose and Julia Gosling also scored in the win.

Canadian goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens made 19 saves.

Caroline Harvey, Hilary Knight, Laila Edwards, Megan Keller and Alex Carpenter scored for the U.S. Aerin Frankel stopped 25 shots.

Poulin missed the net on a breakaway and Sarah Fillier also missed a chance early in overtime.

The U.S. took a bench minor for too many players at 3:17. Serdachny scored Canada’s second power-play goal of the tournament with three seconds remaining in the American penalty. She flicked a backhand shot by Frankel off a rebound of an Ambrose shot for the winner.

The hosts beat Canada 1-0 in overtime in a Group A game earlier in the tournament.

The U.S. outshot the visitors 11-3 in Sunday’s second period, but they were deadlocked 3-3 heading into the third.

The archrivals needed overtime or a shootout to decide a gold medal for an eighth time in tournament history.

Poulin was penalized for an illegal hit on U.S. forward Britta Curl at 7:14 of the third. Knight backhanded Caroline Harvey’s shot off the backboards under Desbiens’ pad for a power-play goal and a 4-3 lead at 8:56.

But Canada pulled even when Clark’s shot from behind the goal line deflected off Harvey and into the U.S. net at 10:46.

Poulin scored her second of the game at 12:19 for a 5-4 lead. At the side the net, she dug at the puck and shovelled it over Frankel’s pad.

The 33-year-old missed PWHL Montreal’s last three games heading into the international break and also sat out Canada’s pre-tournament win over Finland with an undisclosed injury.

Harvey produced another equalizer for the U.S. at 14:58 of the third in another see-saw battle between the two sides for women’s international hockey supremacy.

Canada led 2-1 by 3:08 of the second when Gosling elected to shoot low between Frankel’s pads during an odd-man rush with Serdachny.

But the U.S. tied it at 10:10 scoring off the rush, and led by 16:32 on Carpenter’s sixth goal of the tournament.

Poulin notched her first of the tournament for a 3-3 tie at 18:58 with a wrist shot far side from the faceoff circle.

Kendall Coyne Schofield fed Carpenter in the slot from the behind the net for the latter to beat Desbiens stick side. Desbiens got a piece of Keller’s shot, but not enough to keep it out of her net.

Canada outshot the U.S. 13-6 after a first period that ended 1-1.

Within seconds of Canada’s Jocelyne Larocque whistled for tripping Taylor Heiser in the neutral zone, Edwards collected the puck along the boards and roofed it on Desbiens at 8:12.

Canada scored first at 6:32. With Poulin providing a screen, Ambrose from the wall beside Canada’s bench lofted a shot that appeared to deflect off a body and change speeds on Frankel.

Finland takes bronze

Finland defeated Czechia 3-2 in a shootout for the bronze medal at the women’s world hockey championship on Sunday.

Michelle Karvinen and Petra Nieminen scored and goaltender Sanni Ahola stopped four of five shots in the shootout.

Finland returned to the world championship podium after taking silver in 2019. They ranked sixth in 2022 and fifth in 2023.

The Czechs were bronze medallists in both 2022 and 2023.

Karvinen and Viivi Vainikka scored in regulation time for the Finns. Ahola stopped 29 shots and her Czech counterpart Klara Peslarova made 45 saves in regulation time and overtime.

Klara Hymlarova was the only Czech to beat Ahola in the shootout. Denisa Krizova and Michaela Pejzlova were Czechia’s other goal scorers.

Czech Republic to host next tournament

The 2025 women’s world hockey championship will be held in Ceske Budejovice, in the Czech Republic.

The International Ice Hockey Federation and representatives from the Czech organizing committee made the announcement Sunday on the last day of the 2024 championship.

The 2025 tournament will be held April 9-20. It marks the first time the Czech Republic will host the top-tier women’s world championship.

Canada roster

Forwards: Emily Clark, Saskatoon, Ottawa (PWHL); Sarah Fillier, Georgetown, Ont., Princeton (NCAA); Julia Gosling, London, Ont., St. Lawrence (NCAA); Brianne Jenner, Oakville, Ont., Ottawa (PWHL); Emma Maltais, Burlington, Ont., Toronto (PWHL); Sarah Nurse, Hamilton, Toronto (PWHL); Kristin O’Neill, Oakville, Montreal (PWHL); Marie-Philip Poulin, Beauceville, Que., Montreal (PWHL); Jamie Lee Rattray, Ottawa, Boston (PWHL); Danielle Serdachny, Edmonton, Colgate (NCAA); Natalie Spooner, Toronto, PWHPA; Laura Stacey, Kleinburg, Ont., Montreal (PWHL); Blayre Turnbull, Stellarton, N.S., Toronto (PWHL)

Defenders: Erin Ambrose, Keswick, Ont., Montreal (PWHL); Ashton Bell, Deloraine, Man., Ottawa (PWHL); Jaime Bourbonnais, Mississauga, Ont., New York (PWHL); Renata Fast, Burlington, Ont., Toronto (PWHL); Nicole Gosling, London, Ont., Clarkson (NCAA); Jocelyne Larocque, Ste. Anne, Man., Toronto (PWHL); Ella Shelton, Ingersoll, Ont., New York (PWHL)

Goaltenders: Kristen Campbell, Brandon, Man., Toronto (PWHL); Ann-Renee Desbiens, Clermont, Que., Montreal (PWHL); Emerance Maschmeyer, Bruderheim, Alta., Ottawa (PWHL); Corinne Schroeder, Elm Creek, Man., New York (PWHL)

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