Canadian women’s hockey team regroups ahead of Rivalry Series finale

EDMONTON — The Canadian women’s hockey team regrouped ahead of its last Rivalry Series game against United States, and after a rough outing against its archrival.

The U.S. claimed the four-game series by winning the first three by a combined scored of 20-6, including a 10-4 thumping of the hosts in Wednesday’s Game 3 in Edmonton.

Saturday’s finale at Rogers Place is the last meeting of the two countries before February’s Olympic Games, and a chance for the Canadians to wrest some momentum back.

“We’re not happy with what the game was,” said Canadian goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens, who will get a second straight start Saturday.

“We know this group can do so much better and play with so much more pride than we did.”

Canada didn’t skate Thursday, but sandwiched a Christmas dinner and gift exchange between video analysis sessions.

“We talked out a lot of stuff, had a lot of video to watch,” said forward Emily Clark.

“In moments like that, this group has definitely learned it’s better to get more external talk, than talk less.”

Added veteran forward Brianne Jenner: “There were a lot of holes in our game the other night, so trying to figure out how to kind of plug those.”

Canada’s skate Friday in the Downtown Community Arena attached to Rogers Place included, among other elements, breakouts, offensive-zone entries and special teams work.

A win Saturday would be “huge”, head coach Troy Ryan said.

“A lot of a lot of meetings, a lot of soul searching, a lot of just kind of diving into, A what happened, but B maybe why things happened,” he said.

“The game got away from us. Credit goes to U.S. for forcing us into some of those situations, but a win after our last three games would be well received.”

Saturday is also the last chance for Canada’s players to prove themselves in a national-team game before the 23-player Olympic roster is announced in early January.

Players will disperse to their respective Professional Women’s Hockey League clubs — forward Caitlin Kraemer and defender Chloe Primerano to their college teams — although Hockey Canada will continue to scout them.

“You don’t get as much time with them, but there’s a pretty good recipe to follow on some of the things that happen in the men’s game,” Ryan said.

“When they get together for a Four Nations Cup or they get together for a world championships or Olympics, it’s a very condensed program you’re running.

“You’re going to get them for short periods of time. You can’t kind of overwhelm them. You probably have to a little bit more of a simplified game plan so they can execute it based on them coming from their club team.”

Canada is the defending Olympic champion after beating the U.S. 3-2 in the 2022 final in Beijing, while the Americans are the reigning world champions having edged Canada 4-3 in overtime in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.

Canada opens defence of its Olympic gold medal Feb. 4 against Finland in Milan, Italy.

Since a 3-1 win over the U.S. on Feb. 8 to take last season’s five-game Rivalry Series, Canada has lost five straight to the Americans.

That’s the longest since six losses in a row stretching from the 2014 Four Nations Cup final to the 2016 world championship final.

The U.S. seeks a series sweep Saturday and the confidence that would give them heading into the Olympic Games. The Canadians don’t want the Americans feeling that good about themselves leaving Edmonton.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to to send a message to ourselves, to them,” Clark said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.