Girls hockey celebrated in Plymouth on Saturday during U.S. vs. Canada game

 

By @MichaelCaples –

PLYMOUTH – When Megan Keller walked to the ice for the first period of her game against Canada, she was greeted by a familiar sight.

A swarm of Honeybaked jerseys.

The visual was a reminder of how unique Saturday’s game in Plymouth was – both for Keller and the hockey community in Michigan.

It was Keller’s first opportunity to play a meaningful hockey game in her home state since she left for Boston College two seasons ago.

With their game against Canada as part of the Team USA Winter Championship Series, the U.S. Women’s National Team put on a show for Michigan’s hockey audience – a rarity for women’s hockey in the Mitten State.

“It was an awesome atmosphere out there,” Keller said. “To be able to come back to my hometown and be able to play with Team USA, a bunch of great players out there, and one of the biggest rivalries in women’s hockey, it was something special to experience here in Plymouth.”

 

It wasn’t the result that Keller and Team USA (or the fans) were hoping for – Canada prevailed 5-3 after a late empty-netter – but the U.S. women get a shot for revenge Monday night in Sarnia.

“It’s just exhibition level, but any time you play Canada, it’s a battle and you always want to come out with a win,” Keller said. “We’re just putting it behind us and focusing on the things we can do better in Monday’s match-up.”

Team USA coach Robb Stauber said the game was a learning experience for his players – his opening statement served as a reminder that this was an exhibition contest to wrap up a week of training for his players in Plymouth, with their eye not on winning two games in December, but having success at the World Championships in Plymouth on April.

PHOTOS: Youth hockey events during Team USA vs. Canada women’s game in Plymouth

“We learned a lot tonight,” Stauber said. “Things that we have to get better at, player-to-player there are things that we can do better. We ask our players to skate a lot, and you can see, we have a lot of movement and in order to do that for three periods, it takes training, and we’re just early in that process. To be able to skate like we want them to skate and do that from start to finish, we’re wise enough to know that at times, we’re going to drop that energy level. When somebody defends that a certain way, we have to be willing to adapt, put them back on their heels a little bit, so things open up. We can carry some things into the next game, and we will.

“I would say also, when you’re up 3-1 and you’ve got them on the hook, we have to figure out how to get the job done. We were right there, I think we had a glorious chance on the power play and we didn’t take the shot, and we have to take advantage of those opportunities. Against a team like that, they’re not going to come around very often. We’re well aware that we have to capitalize when we have those opportunities, for sure.”

While the final score didn’t lead to a postgame celebration, a party for girls’ hockey took place all day at USA Hockey Arena. Local players served as flag bearers before the game, and 8U and 10U girls teams from across Metro Detroit played in intermission contests.

Keller said she cherished seeing so many young girls out in support of the national program.

“It was pretty cool,” the Farmington native said. “I saw a lot of Honeybaked jerseys out there, a lot of Livonia jerseys. Those were the two programs I played for growing up, so to see all those younger girls out there, it was a really cool experience.”