2024 World Championship Preview: USA

Last year, Team USA escaped from the World Championships by winning its 10th World Championship gold medal and first since 2019. They finished the group round in second place in Group A with a record of 3-0-1-0. The overtime loss resulted in a penalty shootout against Canada. They will have a chance to repeat this year, as they are in Group A with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland.

final roster

Team USA final roster Announced on Sunday morning After completing a 4-day evaluation camp in Lake Placid, New York.

Forward (15):

• Hannah Birka
• alex carpenter
• Kendall Coyne Schofield
• britta curl
• Joy Dunn
• Lacey Eden
• lyla edwards
• Taylor Heise
• Tessa Janecke
• Hilary Knight
• abby murphy
• kelly panek
• Hayley Skamura
• Kirsten Sims
• Grace Zumwinkle

Defender (7):

• Kayla Burns
• caroline harvey
• Savannah Harmon
• Rory Gilday
• megan keller
• sidney morrow
• Haley Wynn

Goalkeeper (3):

• Aerin Frankel
• nicole hensley
• gwyneth phillips

Schedule/How to watch

Below is the group stage match schedule. All games will be played at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York.

• Wednesday, April 3 vs. Switzerland – 7:00 PM EDT (NHL Network, TSN3, TSN5)
• Friday, April 5 vs. Czech Republic – 7:00 PM EDT (NHL Network, TSN3)
• Saturday, April 6 vs. Finland – 7:00 PM EDT (NHL Network, TSN5)
• Monday, April 8 vs. Canada – 7:00 PM EDT (NHL Network, TSN1, TSN5, RDS)

Also, here is the possible schedule for the US playoffs and medal games: According to USA Hockey’s website. All games will be played at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York.

• Thursday, April 11th – Quarterfinals – 8:30pm EDT (NHL Network, TSN1, RDS Information)
• Saturday, April 13th – Semifinal Matchup – 3:00pm ET (NHL Network, TSN1, RDS)
• Sunday, April 14th
  • Bronze Medal Game – 1pm EDT (NHL Network, TSN1, RDS)
  • Gold Medal Game – 5pm ET (NHL Network, TSN1, RDS)

Who to pay attention to

As for the newcomers to watch, keep an eye on Joy Dunn. The 18-year-old forward has been the youngest player on the U.S. roster for nearly a year. She is finishing up her freshman season at Ohio State University, which ended with her grades. score the only goal in their national championship win wisconsin. Dunn had 24 goals, 18 assists, and 42 points in 39 regular season games. In addition to winning national titles, Dunn also WCHA and NCAA Rookie of the year. She represented the United States at last year’s U18 World Championships and was named one of the team’s top three players, recording three goals, three assists, and six points in five games en route to her bronze medal. Dunn has shown recently that she has a knack for stepping up in key situations, and if she can maintain that in her first senior national championship, she will be a big boost to the U.S. offense.

For notable veterans, keep an eye out for Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield. They may be two of the best in the history of the game, but they enter the tournament as somewhat of a wild card this year. Knight, the oldest player on Team USA’s roster after playing heroically at last year’s World Championship, hasn’t quite been himself in this year’s PWHL Boston. She has just four goals and three assists in 19 games. Knight has regained her form a bit after a very slow start and her shot numbers are starting to increase, but she is still a player to watch in this tournament. Although her team USA has a ton of firepower outside of her, they continue to count on Knight to bring her lethal shot and scoring touch, especially in tougher matches.

Meanwhile, Coyne Schofield missed the World Championships last year to give birth to her son Drew. She hasn’t missed a beat this season in PWHL Minnesota, but her international play is different. The international schedule is much more compact than the PWHL’s, and she was held without points in the three Rival Series games she played this year. The United States will be hoping it’s just a blip and that she continues her production like she did in the PWHL.

What to watch out for

How do young people perform?

The U.S. is fielding a young roster in the tournament this year, with only 11 players from the PWHL on the evaluation camp roster. The remaining 14 of his players are still in college, and five are scheduled to debut at his IIHF event. Given the aging core, youth exercise is needed sooner or later, and this year looks balanced so it should work out. In terms of experience, there are 20 athletes who have competed in the past, including 18 who won gold medals last year.

On the other hand, fresh faces will bring a different energy to the team that may be missing from archrival Canada, which has more veteran players.Features of Canada’s roster 20 players from last year’s team participate, only 2 players remaining People who have never played in a world championship before. Only four players on the roster are still enrolled in college. Young and inexperienced players are prone to mistakes, but the U.S. still has plenty of veteran talent and the goaltending is strong enough that that shouldn’t be a problem. However, if the young people are not able to rise to the occasion this year, the situation could become a little unstable.

Group stage showdown

It’s a low hanging fruit, but there’s no greater showdown in women’s hockey than USA vs. Canada. There’s a reason these two teams are the top two teams in the world, and there are always fireworks every time these two teams meet. Team USA suffered a come-from-behind loss in the Rivals Series for the second year in a row, but everyone will be watching to see if they can prove they are the better team before the gold medal showdown on April 8th. please. The top seed for the playoffs will almost always be determined by this game, and even though they’ve already hosted the tournament on home soil, small advantages such as last-minute changes can become big in a competitive matchup like this . Additionally, the top seeds will give you the easiest path to the playoffs, and the likes of Finland and the Czech Republic are getting stronger with each tournament, so it’s never a bad thing to play against lower seeds whenever possible. Therefore, for Team USA to have the best chance of winning gold, they must beat Canada in group play.

prediction

In the tournament’s 22-year history, Team USA has never missed out on a gold medal, so it would be a shock to see them finish with less than a silver medal (Canada missed out once in 2019). Gold medals are likely to be won again this year, but it will depend on how well the youth movement performs. Depth has been key in the past few tournaments, so if the Americans can’t handle this situation well and have to rely solely on their veterans instead, things could get even more difficult. But if we can do that, the United States will be in a great position to become world champions again.