2016 Ice Hockey Women's World Championship ~ Kamloops, BC

The exciting week of  Women's World Hockey 

This past week Kamloops has been host to the 2016 Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship and what a week it was!  The world was well represented by some very talented women who worked hard to take home the gold!

Flags of each Women's hockey team

Represented by a team were Finland, Russia, United States, Czech Republic, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada.   Finland, Russia, United States and Canada were in Group A the others were Group B, based on their previous ratings.

Home to 2016 Ice Hockey Women's World Championship

Kamloops has a great reputation for the volunteers that always come out to help on these occasions and this was no exception.  There was a total of 450 volunteers involved in this week’s activities, held at the Sandman Centre and the McArthur Island Sport & Event Centre.

USA and Russia play

The referees and linesmen, which appears to be a misnomer, were an international group of women if I saw that correctly.  I did not see all games, but we were fortunate enough to watch one of the games that were played by USA and RUSSIA down at the Sandman Centre.   We saw a few more, thanks to TSN, from the comfort of our home.  These photos are of the USA and RUSSIA game.

USA dominated the scoreboard

Canada and the USA team have been competing against one another for the gold for the history of this tournament since it began in 1990.  There have been sixteen tournaments in total and this one is number seventeen.  Canada has won the gold ten times and the US won silver on those years.  The US won gold on six occasions and Canada won silver on those years.  The competition is strong.

Everyone played to win

The final game was played, as expected by Canada and the US teams.  What an incredible game.  The crowd was showing a full house of red and made lots of noise to support team Canada!  There could not have been a more exciting game played, the score after 3 periods was 0-0.  It then went into overtime.

Anthem played for winning team

The final game was played into overtime.  The goalies from each team were definitely the stars of the game but all players played their hearts out and did a great job of trying to win the gold.  The winning goal was scored at 12.5 minutes into overtime by team USA to take home the gold and Canada won the silver.

Emerance Maschmeyer of Alberta, the goalie for team Canada, made 33 saves in this final game.  She was named the top goaltender by the International Ice Hockey Federation directorate for the tournament.  This young woman was amazing for her first start in this world tournament.  Alex Rigsby of team USA made 32 saves in this game and was an awesome goalie for her team.

This was a job well done by all who participated in this great tournament, players and volunteers. 

                         Way to go, Kamloops, BC!