Latest:

MiHockey

Your Hockey – Our Hockey – MiHockey

Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Amateur Hockey Editor's picks For Coaches For Fans For Parents For Players Slideshow The Latest 

U.S Women’s National Team players, coach eager to defend World Championship crown on home soil

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

By @StefanKubus –

PLYMOUTH – The last time the IIHF Women’s World Championship was held on United States soil, the U.S. Women’s National Team entered as defending champs before falling to Canada in overtime of the gold medal game.

Five years later, the U.S. once again will have the opportunity to defend their crown on home ice.

After their 1-0 overtime defeat of Canada last year to win gold in Kamloops, B.C., the U.S. women are anxious to kick off the tournament against their rival from the north on Friday.

“It’s everything,” defenseman Kacey Bellamy said of having home ice. “Obviously, when we were in Burlington five years ago, it was tough loss, and it was a really good learning experience for us, though, but we’ve changed our culture and just everything about us has changed so we’re excited, and we hope it to be a great atmosphere here in Plymouth.”

“It’s critical any time you get to defend,” head coach Robb Stauber said. “On the other hand, doing it on home ice makes it special. I suspect we’ll have good crowds, and that’ll be exciting, and we’d like to please the fans for sure.”

Stauber added that he’s pleased with the progress women’s hockey has made since he’s been invovled.

“I think it’s definitely trending, and I’ve been involved in seven years ever since 2010, and I’ve seen great strides from the speed of the game to the skill level of the game to the imagination,” Stauber said. “It’s been a great improvement, but one of the things that really sticks out and I think for me personally is that maybe in 2010, we had a few players that can really bury the puck and shoot it hard and firm. Now we have a whole team that mostly can deliver a knockout punch, and so they’re hand skills and the strength of their shot has really increased, so that’s an area that I look back seven years ago, and I’ve seen a dramatic improvement to shoot and ultimately produce more goals.”

Since the tournament’s inception in 1990, Canada and the U.S. have traded gold and silver; no other country has ever made the gold medal game. Canada leads the all-time count with ten gold medals to seven for the U.S. However, since 2005, the U.S. women have won gold seven times to Canada’s two – including the past three (2013, 2015, 2016).

Plymouth is the fourth U.S. city to host the event, and the women’s team is excited to play on home soil.

“It’s been a long 14 or 15 months, but we’re just excited to be all together, representing our country on the world stage here in Plymouth, Mich., hopefully defending our title,” said star forward Hilary Knight.

This year’s tournament holds extra significance given the women’s recent boycott before ultimately reaching a new deal with USA Hockey on Tuesday.

Farmington native Megan Keller wasn’t sure if she would have the chance to play so close to her hometown, but now that everything is ironed out between the governing body and its players, the hometown hero is excited to don the Red, White and Blue for her third World Championship.

“I’m really happy, especially any time you get to represent your country and wear the USA jersey, it’s an honor,” Keller said. “To be able to do it here in Michigan is even more special. Hopefully we’ll compete for a gold medal and bring it home and keep it here.”

For some of the veteran players, it was a challenging time during the boycott, but now, the focus is back to hockey.

“It’s special; this is my seventh World Championship and the second time that it’s been in the U.S. for me, so really excited to be here, especially under the circumstances,” defenseman Monique Lamoureux-Morando said.

For Lamoureux-Morando, she also gets to share the experience with her twin sister and U.S. forward, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson.

“We’re best friends and so for us, our story has always been ‘we,’ it’s never been ‘I’ so without her here, the experience would be different,” Lamoureux-Morando said. “It’s always been us trying to tackle our dreams together and I don’t know what it’d be like to not have her here.”

The Lamoureux twins and the rest of the U.S. Women’s National Team kick off their tournament with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop against Canada Friday night. The full schedule can be found here.