United States opens world title defence with shutout over Switzerland
Published
UTICA, N.Y. — Haley Winn scored twice while Hilary Knight had a goal and two assists, and the United States opened its title defence with a 4-0 win over Switzerland at the 2024 world women's hockey championship on Wednesday.
Knight is the tournament's all-time points (103) and goals leader (62).
Kendall Coyne Schofield, with her first international goal since returning from maternity leave, also scored for the U.S.
Aerin Frankel made 11 saves to earn a shutout.
Switzerland's Andrea Braendli stopped 51 shots against a high-flying United States offence.
“There’s a lot of respect there for Switzerland, they stood tough and blocked a lot of our shots coming out in the game,” U.S. head coach John Wroblewski said.
“We made some adjustments at the blue line to manufacture our offence. We diversified how we attacked in the offensive zone and it paid off.”
After a scoreless first period, Wynn got the Americans on the board 5:23 into the second.
Coyne Schofield doubled the lead later in the second before Knight and Wynn gave the U.S. a commanding lead in the third.
The U.S. beat Canada 6-3 in the final to win gold last year in Brampton, Ont.