The United States feasted on Canada's porous defence in a 10-4 thrashing to take the women's hockey Rivalry Series on Wednesday.
Canada gave up 10 goals to the U.S. in women's hockey for the first time. The previous high was nine in 2012.
"They're talented and they showed it tonight and we sure made them look good," said Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
The U.S. won the first three games of the four-game Rivalry Series to take it, outscoring Canada by a combined 20-6.
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"It's fun scoring goals, especially against Canada," said U.S. winger Abbey Murphy.
The Canadians will attempt to draw momentum back against their archrival before February's Olympic Games in Saturday's fourth and final game in Edmonton.
"That should put us a chip on our shoulder, that's for sure. 10-4, it's hard to find the positive," Poulin said.
Both countries were using the Rivalry Series as evaluation to help choose their respective Olympic rosters.
Canada edged the U.S. 3-2 in the Olympic final in 2022, but the U.S. has extended its win streak to four in a row against its archrivals, including an overtime win in the world championship final.
"The work doesn't stop," Coyne Schofield said. "I don't think you're ever satisfied till that final game. We have a little bit of a ways to go to get there. Our Olympic team is not named. We still have one more game to go on Saturday."
Wednesday's game in front of an announced 3,591 at Rogers Arena started well for host Canada, which scored in the first minute.
That was the only lead Canada would hold as the U.S. rattled off five unanswered goals before the Canadians scored again.
After scoring twice in the last two minutes of the second period to trail by two goals, and starting the third with a power play because of a lost goal challenge by the United States, Canada had a chance to turn the tide.
But a flat power play yielded nothing. The U.S. resumed its onslaught with another four goals before the buzzer sounded.
"An uninspiring power play to start the third and it just kinda continued the way of the original 40 minutes," observed Canada's head coach Troy Ryan.
"Sometimes in those situations that's all it takes is the power play to come out pretty flat and it just got uglier and uglier.
"There was a lack of compete. We had a meeting this afternoon and it was generally all on compete and we have to be better competing."
Canada turned the puck over under pressure and left U.S. players unchecked from below the face-off circles to its crease.
"There was a lot of words said after the game," said Canadian defender Jocelyne Larocque. "Right now we have a choice. We have a choice to learn, to get better, to compete harder, to just play Canadian hockey.
"That wasn't Canadian hockey today."
At the other end, U.S. goalie Gwyneth Philips provided some heroics with a 30-save game, but the Americans were also overall more tenacious around both nets.
Murphy led the U.S. with two goals and two assists, Kelly Pannek scored a pair of goals and Kendall Coyne Schofield had a goal and two assists.
Tessa Janecke, Jesse Compher, Britta Curl-Salemme, Alex Carpenter and Kirsten Simms added to the goal deluge.
Defender Sophie Jaques led Canada with a pair of goals, and nearly scored a hat trick when her shot hit the post during the early third-period power play.
Sarah Fillier and Julia Gosling also scored for the hosts. After allowing five goals on 17 shots in her first start of the Rivalry Series, Ann-Renée Desbiens was replaced by Emerance Maschmeyer midway through the second period. Maschmeyer turned away seven of 12 shots.
Canada deployed its third-string goalies in 4-1 and 6-1 losses to start the series. Desbiens was among veterans drawing back into the lineup Wednesday from Canada's pool of 30 Olympic candidates.
While Canada scored more goals Wednesday than it did in the first two games, its defence was undone by a fast and skilled attack.
"If we're going to give up a little bit in individual skill, we'd better be very well structurally and we'd better compete," Ryan said.
"The worst part is we probably give up a little bit in skill and tonight we gave up in compete and didn't play in structure, so it's a combination of some pretty bad stuff."
Canada's 23-player Olympic roster is expected to be announced in early January. Canada opens defence of its gold medal Feb. 4 against Finland in Milan, Italy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.
