Maggie Scannell's hat trick leads Team USA past Finland in U18 Worlds

OSTERSUND, Sweden — A hat trick from Team USA returner Maggie Scannell (Wynantskill, N.Y. / Wisconsin) lead the Americans to a 8-1 victory Monday over Finland in their second game of the 2023 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship.

WCHA

Maggie Scannell, one of the top players in the class of 2024, commits to Wisconsin

Scannell, a member of the 2022 Team USA U18 roster and one of the top point producers at Shattuck-St. Mary's, announced that she will play Division I hockey at Wisconsin.

November 06, 2022 12:52 PM

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By  Sydney Wolf

The 16-year-old opened scoring in the first period of the prelimary round matchup. Scannell won a faceoff and got the puck to teammate Finley McCarthy (Whitefish, Mont. / Wisconsin). McCarthy tried to make a move in front of the net but the puck bobbled back to Scannell who then scooped it up and scored over the glove of Finnish netminder Suvi Saarinen .

Later on in the period, Gabby Kim (Los Angeles / Princeton) made a pass up to fellow defender Joy Dunne (St. Louis / Ohio State) who then found Sammy Taber (Tewksbury, Mass. / Boston College) on the breakout. Taber then sped past her defenders and went backhand bar-down to double the lead for Team USA.

Finland found their lone goal early in the second period. Pauliina Salonen intercepted a pass from USA's Rose Dwyer (Wynnewood, Pa. / Cornell), then subsequently got the puck over to Neea Pelkonen who scored from the hash marks.

Scannell then lit up the scoreboard in the second frame. She proceeded to score two more unassisted goals to complete her hat-trick and even tacked on an assist on a powerplay goal from Dunne at the end of the period.

In the third, USA's Kim netted her first of the tournament on the powerplay with an assist to Minnesota native Josie St. Martin (Stillwater, Minn. / Ohio State).

Team USA netted another power-play goal late in the final frame from Cassie Hall (South Lyon, Mich. / Wisconsin) to increase the lead to 7-1. Minnesotan Ava Lindsay (Minnetonka, Minn. / Minnesota) earned an assist on the play along with captain Joy Dunne.

In the final minutes of regulation the Americans tacked on their eighth and final goal, this time from Finley McCarthy.

With the win, the Americans move to 2-0 in the preliminary round with victories over Finland and Sweden . Finland is now 0-2 after losing to the USA and to Canada.

Maggie Scannell finished the game with three goals and two assists for a team-high of five points. Joy Dunne tallied a goal and two assists in the match.

Minnesotan Layla Hemp (Minnetonka, Minn.) allowed only one goal on twenty shots for Team USA.

Team USA will have an off day on Jan. 10 before heading into the big rivalry match against Canada, which is slated for Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed live on the NHL Network.

USA 8, Finland 1

USA 2-3-3
FIN 0-1-0

First period scoring — 1. USA, Maggie Scannell (unassisted) 2:56; 2. USA, Samantha Taber (Joy Dunne, Gabrielle Kim) 14:13
Penalties — FIN, Ilona Palin (illegal hit) 17:01

Second period scoring — 1. FIN, Neea Pelkonen (Pauliina Salonen) 23:02; 3. USA, Scannell (unassisted) 24:11; 4. USA, Scannell (unassisted) 24:48; 5. USA, Dunne (Scannell, Cassie Hall) 30:58 (pp)
Penalties — FIN, Salonen (hooking) 30:18; USA, Megan Healy (hooking) 34:44; USA, Hall (cross-checking) 36:14; USA, Ava Lindsay (holding) 38:18

Third period scoring — 6. USA, Gabby Kim (Josie St. Martin) 46:56 (pp); 7. USA, Hall (Lindsay, Dunne) 54:55 (pp); 8. USA, McCarthy (Lucia DiGirolamo, Scannell) 58:19
Penalties — FIN, Julia Schalin (cross-checking) 44:59; USA, Allie Lalonde (hooking) 50:55; FIN, Pelkonen (illegal hit) 54:23

Goalie saves — USA: Layla Hemp 19/20 (1GA) ; FIN: Suvi Saarinen 22/27 (5GA); FIN: Kerttu Kuja-Halkola 10/13 (3GA)

Players of the game — USA: Scannell (3G + 2A); FIN: Pelkonen (1G)