United States women’s hockey team falls to Canada to wrap preliminary round at 2022 Winter Olympics

Team USA’s Megan Keller battles along the boards with Canada’s Laura Stacey during their game Tuesday in Beijing (photo: USA Hockey).

The U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team dropped a 4-2 decision to Canada in its final preliminary round game of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games today at the Wukesong Sports Center in Beijing.

Both teams were undefeated heading into the game, and the U.S. outshot Canada 53-27.

“I think we had a good start [and] we generated a bunch of offense, but that offense didn’t create enough high-quality scoring chances,” said Team USA coach Joel Johnson (St. Thomas) in a statement. “Shots on net don’t win hockey games. Goals do. So we have to find a way to use our offensive zone time to generate higher quality scoring chances and get the puck around them. They did a great job blocking shots. Canada has great goaltending and we’re on the short end of it. That’s the biggest takeaway.”

Dani Cameranesi (Minnesota) and Alex Carpenter (Boston College) scored for the Americans, while Maddie Rooney (Minnesota Duluth) made 23 saves in goal.

For Canada, Brianne Jenner (Cornell) scored twice, and Jamie Lee Rattray (Clarkson) and Marie-Philip Poulin (Boston University), on a penalty shot, added goals in the win.

Ann-Renée Desbiens (Wisconsin) stopped 51 shots in picking up the win for the Canadians.

The United States will now play Czechia in the quarterfinals on Friday at 12:10 p.m. local time, 11:10 p.m. (Thursday night).