Sweden edges the USA 2-1, Dunne named one of the tournament’s best
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – The U.S. women’s under-18 hockey team dropped a 2-1 decision to Sweden on Saturday, dropping the U.S. to Sunday’s third-place match.
The U.S. will face Finland in the third-place game, which begins at 9 a.m. Central Time and can be seen on the NHL Network.
In Saturday’s semifinal game, Sweden fought back from a 1-0 deficit to advance to the championship game. Sweden will face Canada for the championship on Sunday. Canada advanced with a 3-2 win over Finland on Saturday.
With 2:44 left in the first period, the USA took a 1-0 lead when Lucia DiGirolamo scored off an assist by Finley McCarthy, who won a battle along the boards, carried the puck behind the goal and found DiGirolamo wide open in front of the net. DiGirolamo took the pass and put a backhander behind Swedish goalkeeper Felicia Frank’s pads.
But the Swedes rallied and shut out the USA the rest of the way.
Sweden scored a pair of power play goals for the win.
USA outshot Sweden, 38-27.
Early in the second period, Sweden was rewarded with a full two minutes of 5-on-3 play and during the subsequent power play, Mira Jungaker put a high shot from the slot to tie the game at 1-1. Sweden took the lead 2-1 on another power play goal when Astrid Lindeberg scored past USA goalkeeper Annelies Bergmann.
Bergmann, along with US teammates Joy Dunne and Maggie Scannell, were voted the top three US players in the tournament.
Dunne, who trains with the East Alton-based Elite Hockey School, scored a pair of goals during the semifinal round of the tournament and also had an assist. She is a senior at Fort Zumwalt South High School in O’Fallon, Missouri and is recruiting at Ohio State University.
“We had a little bit of a slow start there,” USA U-18 coach Katie Lachapelle told the media. “We lost a little gas there and their goaltending was great. We didn’t do a good job getting pucks deep. It’s a good group and it’s a shame we couldn’t come out on top.”