CLEVELAND — Well, the U.S. women know their power play works.
The four-game Rivalry Series with Canada is a tune-up for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, a chance for coach John Wroblewski to assess his player pool, decide who is best on which lines. One game in, it’s clear the U.S. has something special with Abbey Murphy and Taylor Heise on power plays.
Murphy scored three times in the U.S. women’s 4-1 win against Canada on Thursday night, the first hat trick for the U.S. women against their archrivals since Hilary Knight had one at the 2023 world championships. Each of Murphy’s goals came on power plays, with Heise assisting on all of them.
“When Murph finds the back door like that, it’s hard to miss her,” Heise said. “It takes a special player to not always be moving around. She finds a spot and she knows exactly — I don’t trust many people back there, but when she’s in that spot, whether I have to see through three people or one, she’s there to put it away.”
On each goal, Heise threaded a pass through traffic to Murphy from the opposite side of the ice. Murphy then let fly — once from her knees — and Canadian goalkeeper Eve Gascon could do little more than flail as the puck sailed into the net.
Once, twice, three times, all in a 12-minute span over the second and third periods.
“Murph’s got a world-class shot. It’s the best way to phrase it,” Wroblewski said. “I worked on the men’s side for a long time, and she’s got a shot that you’d feel comfortable putting on a men’s power play.”
The U.S. women have a wealth of offensive talent. So much so that Laila Edwards, the MVP of the 2024 world championships, is now a defender. But so does Canada, which means the Americans need to be able to maximize any advantage they get.
Particularly in a rivalry as feisty as the U.S. women and Canada.
There were 12 penalties in Thursday night’s game, all but four of which resulted in a one-woman advantage for the opponent. Besides the remaining three games of the Rivalry Series, odds are good that the Americans will see their neighbors to the North in the Olympic gold medal game once again.
(The teams have played each other for the gold medal all but one time since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998.)
If the Canadians are going to hand the U.S. women an opening, the Americans better have the goods to do something with it.
“We’re just moving the puck fast and finding openings. It worked really well for us today,” Murphy said. “(Heise is a) great player who knows how to find open people and find those seams. She sees the ice in a whole different way and it’s really special.”
The Americans are not yet Olympic ready. The team only trained together for three days before Thursday night’s game, and this was the first competitive game since May for the PWHL players.
Which is fine. Wroblewski won’t name his roster until late December or early January, and the Olympics don’t begin until Feb. 6.
But when you’ve got one part of your game figured out, it frees you up to tinker and polish elsewhere.
“Pretty awesome feeling first game back,” Murphy said. “It felt like we haven’t played together in so long, so just being back and winning that is really special.”
Every win over Canada is special, and Thursday’s gave the U.S. women a three-game winning streak in the rivalry. But it’s Olympic gold the Americans are after, and the connection between Murphy and Heise could help them get it.