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Team USA wins gold at the Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women's World Championships

By Trevor Squire, SportsEngine, 01/23/17, 2:15PM CST

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Minnesota fielded 15 players on the gold-medal winning team.


Grace Zumwinkle scored four goals and had two assists at the IIHF Under-18 Women's World Championship. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

A gold-medal showdown between Team USA vs. Team Canada seems to have become an annual tradition. The two teams met for a tenth consecutive first-place bout in the Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championships on Jan. 14 in the Czech Republic.

Despite winning the past two championships, the defending gold-medalist Americans weren’t the favorite after a 1-0 overtime loss in the final game of the preliminary round against the Canadians.

Breck’s Grace Zumwinkle said that the loss lit a fire in the team, especially after losing the first game in an August series to Team Canada before coming back to win the final two.

“We knew we’d have to come out hard and it gave us momentum coming into the game; knowing what it takes to win,” she said.

Just four days after losing in the preliminary round, the Americans scored first and never trailed. A game-clinching goal from Zumwinkle with two minutes and 32 seconds left in regulation and solid special teams play helped Team USA to a 3-1 gold-medal victory.

“I was super excited right after the puck went in,” Zumwinkle said. “There’s always a special opportunity to represent your country, and [i]t’s awesome to see so many people from different backgrounds buy into the system and continue the success of the program from previous years.”

A tripping call left the Americans shorthanded for the final two minutes of the game, forcing Team USA to kill one final penalty to secure the title.

“We knew we had to kill it off because Canada has a strong power play,” Zumwinkle said about the penalty kill. “They pulled their goalie and we were fortunate enough to get a rush,”

Zumwinkle and future Golden Gopher teammate Emily Oden connected for an empty-net goal with 5.9 seconds left in the game to completely kill the penalty and wrap up the Americans third consecutive title, tying Team Canada’s 2012-2014 run.

Minnesota had the largest representation of any state with 11 skaters, nine that play for high school teams within the Minnesota State High School League, and another four out-of-state players that attend Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault.

All the players are back with their respective teams, and with two full weeks left in the regular season, they’ll be looking to fine tune their play for the playoff stretch of the season.

“Most programs have five or six games before sections so we keep in mind the success on the world stage and now we’re focusing on getting our teams to state,” Zumwinkle said.

Here’s a list of all the Minnesotans who played in the tournament:


Name Hometown 2016-2017 Team
Natalie Buchbinder Fairport, NY Shattuck-St. Mary's
Clair DeGeorge Anchorage, AK Shattuck-St. Mary's
Taylor Heise Lake City Red Wing High School
Natalie Heising Maple Grove Maple Grove High School
Gabrielle Hughes Lino Lakes Centennial High School
Anneke Linser Lino Lakes Centennial High School
Murphy Maureen Buffalo, NY Shattuck-St. Mary's
Elizabeth Norton Long Lake Minnesota Jr. Whitecaps
Emily Oden Edina Edina High School
Gracie Ostertag Shakopee Shattuck-St. Mary's
Allyson Simpson Frisco, TX Shattuck-St. Mary's
Catherine Skaja New Prague New Prague High School
Taylor Wente Plymouth Maple Grove High School
Madeline Wethington Edina Blake High School
Grace Zumwinkle Excelsior Breck High School

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