The United States is back on top of the women’s hockey world following a 6-3 victory over Canada on Sunday night to win gold at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship. The victory is the country’s tenth in 22 all-time tournaments and first since 2019.
Boston Pride forward Becca Gilmore was the lone PHF representative on this edition of the U.S. National Women’s Team and is a champion in her first tournament appearance
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group, they fought all the way until the end,” Gilmore said. “It was a close game, and I’m just really proud of how we came together and nothing better than our captain leading the way with a hat-trick. What a way to win.”
Hilary Knight, who captained the Pride in the team’s first two seasons, scored three goals including two late in the third period on the power play to become the first player to eclipse the century mark for career points at the Women’s Worlds but more importantly to break a 3-3 tie and stun the capacity crowd at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario.
“We came in with a determination to win gold,” Gilmore said earlier in the medal round. “I think we’ve found our identity and we keep finding it every period, every shift, and you want your last game to be your best one and I think we keep developing our game and owning our game.”
The 25-year-old Harvard University graduate from Wayland, MA suffered an injury late in the team’s quarterfinal victory over Germany and missed the final two games of the tournament. She didn’t let any disappointment cloud her perspective following Sunday’s team triumph.
“No matter what your role is, whether you’re injured or on the ice playing 100 minutes or none, it doesn’t matter, you came together as one,” Gilmore said post-game. “I’m super proud of this group and can’t wait to celebrate with our families. We had a lot of USA chants in a predominantly Canadian fanbase, so it’s awesome to share with them.”
Gilmore scored her first career senior national team goal during the preliminary round against Switzerland and leaves the world stage with invaluable experience.
“Being my first (World Championship), I know what it takes to get here but to develop as a player and to play with the best players I learned a lot this week,” she said. “I’m just so pumped to bring the gold medal back to the United States and excited to go back home and train and take a lot away from this experience.”
The U.S. victory ends a streak of three-straight Canadian gold medals at the 2021 and 2022 Worlds as well as the 2022 Olympics.
“That losing streak had to end at some point, and I’m glad it was today,” said head coach John Wroblewski. “Certainly not the script you would have thought there at the end, how it just turned very quickly, but those are the ebbs and flows of international hockey.”
Despite Gilmore’s injury, Wroblewski was complimentary of the rookie’s performance.
“I was so impressed by Becca,” he said. “Just back when I first took over the job, I thought her hockey IQ was tremendous and the way she can facilitate a play was apparent. A great motor and a really smart player too. She is chasing her dream and I’ve got a lot of respect for that. She just becomes really dependable when she’s hungry and the type of human being you want to have when the chips are down.”
Gilmore was one of 10 PHF players that competed at the 2023 event along with her Boston teammate Aneta Tejralová who won bronze for Czechia alongside Connecticut’s KateřinaMrázová, Minnesota’s Denisa Křížová, plus Toronto’s Dominika Lásková and Tereza Vanišová. Riveters defender Sarah Forster represented Switzerland, while forwards Réka Dabasi and FanniGasparics played for Hungary along with Montreal’s Taylor Baker.
A total of 20 PHF players from the 2022-23 season have now won World Championship medals in their careers with Gilmore becoming the seventh American gold medalist on the list. Others include Minnesota’s Stephanie Anderson (2015), Torontocaptain Shiann Darkangelo (2016), Metropolitan’s Amanda Pelkey (2016 and 2017), Boston’s Kali Flanagan (2017), Whitecaps captain Sydney Brodt (2019), and Connecticut’s Melissa Samoskevich (2019).
The 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship will be played in Utica, NY and is tentatively scheduled for April 4-14.
Photos by Dr. Jonathan Eto
