歪歪漫画

DULUTH 鈥� Minnesota Duluth head women鈥檚 hockey coach Maura Crowell has twice helped the U.S. Under-18 Women鈥檚 National Team win gold at the Under-18 Women鈥檚 World Championship as part of the coaching staff.

The first time was in 2016 as an assistant coach and the second came in 2018 as an associate head coach.

On Thursday in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Bulldogs bench boss led Team USA to gold as head coach via a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over rival Canada in the final of the 2020 U-18 Women鈥檚 World Championship.

It was redemption for Crowell and Team USA, which a year ago lost in overtime to Canada in the gold medal game. That was Crowell鈥檚 first stint as head coach and she brought back a number of players from the squad that had to settle for silver, including the heroes on Thursday in Bratislava.

Playing 3-on-3 in overtime 鈥� no more shootouts 鈥� Minnetonka-native Maggie Nicholson and Kiara Zanon forced a Team Canada turnover at the U.S. blue line and they took off on a 2-on-0 break. Zanon, playing in her second U-18 Worlds, scored the game-winning-goal off a backhanded dish by Nicholson, playing in her third, with 3:08 left in the first overtime to give the U.S. the win.

Team USA took a 1-0 lead in the first period via a power play goal by Abbey Murphy, another three-time participant. Sarah Paul tied the game for Canada at the 5:38 mark of the third.

U.S. goaltender Skylar Vetter of Lakeville, Minn., made 31 saves to give her country its fifth U-18 Women鈥檚 World Championship title in the last six years.

In addition to Crowell, Team USA鈥檚 staff also featured UMD women鈥檚 hockey director of operations Nick Bryant as the equipment manager. The roster also included a number of future Bulldogs in forward Clara Van Wieren, Kathryn Davis of Edina and defenseman Brenna Fuhrman of Farmington, Minn. Van Wieren and Davis will join the program as freshmen next fall while Fuhrman becomes a Bulldog in the fall of 2021.

For the second year in a row, Bulldogs鈥� men鈥檚 hockey coach Scott Sandelin and the U.S. National Junior Team had its World Junior Championship run halted by Finland, only this time it was in the quarterfinals instead of the gold medal game.

The result of Thursday鈥檚 1-0 loss in Trinec, Czech Republic was the United States being denied a medal after an all-time best run of four straight that included two bronze medals (2016 and 2018), a gold (2017) and silver (2018).

Joonas Oden scored the lone goal for Finland on a power play four minutes into the third period. The U.S. had a chance to tie late on the power play for the final 1:15, but couldn鈥檛 convert. It was only the second power play of the game for the U.S., while Finland finished 1-for-3.

U.S. goaltender Spencer Knight made 28 saves while Finland's Justus Annunen stopped all 30 shots he faced.

鈥淚 thought this group that we have was growing, but tonight we were chasing the game and didn鈥檛 have it,鈥� said Sandelin, the Hibbing, Minn. native. 鈥淭here are some guys in there who will have a chance at this again, I hope they all learn from it moving forward.鈥�

Sandelin 鈥� who had UMD equipment manager Chris Garner and former Bulldogs assistant/current St. Cloud State head coach Brett Larson of Duluth on his staff 鈥� was at the World Juniors for the second consecutive year, and fourth overall as a coach, after helping Team USA nab silver as an assistant last year in Vancouver under Minnesota State-Mankato鈥檚 Mike Hastings. That remains Sandelin鈥檚 first medal and only medal as a coach after serving as an assistant in 2012 when the U.S. took seventh and head coach back in 2005 when the U.S. finished fourth.