It was a hard-fought, stressful game last night in Brampton. Canada struck first and shot most, but it was Hilary Knight's night. The all-time leading scorer at IIHF World Championships broke the 100 point night and got herself a hat trick, leading her team to a 6-3 win in the gold medal game.

Here's Species with the goals:
MPP with the 5-on-3

Abbey Murphy tied it up late in the first.

Brianne Jenner getting her first of the game

Amanda Kessel with the equalizer

Jenner with her second goal and third point of the game, earning her Canada's Player of the Game award.

I made noises when Poulin made this play.

Canada kept the lead for fifteen more minutes, but in the third period the scoring went all the wrong way.

Caroline Harvey

Player on official violence

Knight point 100

The hat trick tip

And the empty-netter credited to Cayla Barnes that might possibly have been an own goal.

Congratulations to Team USA, particularly to Hilary Knight. Look out for the revenge game next year.

A recap of the other elimination games is in yesterday's GDT.

GDT: Canada goes for gold
Join us as we watch Team Canada take on Team USA for World Championship gold and recap the elimination rounds.
PPP LeafsNafio

Several other pieces of news came from the IIHF last year.

IIHF - IIHF introduces new award
Player of the Year for men & women
IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation

There will be a new Player of the Year award, one award each to a men's and women's hockey player.

IIHF - IIHF Women’s Worlds 2024 goes to Utica
Back to New York state after 29 years
IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation

The 2024 Women's Worlds will take place in Utica, NY. Pluses: having a location a year in advance for the first time in a while gives time for more planning and promotion. Two rinks are better than one, and what seems like it will be the Group B rink and practice facility is shiny new – finished in 2022.  Minuses: capacity for the Group A rink (pictured in the header) is 3,860 and the Group B rink only seats 1,200.

There will be a change in seeding format for the 2024 Women's U18 Worlds, moving away from the stronger Group A, weaker Group B format. And yes, it's a test. With the next senior Worlds being in the States, I doubt the IIHF will make a change that removes the guaranteed full house of a Canada-USA preliminary round match-up immediately, but we could see a rebalancing sooner than later.

There has been some fuss over where Swiss star Alina Müller will choose to play now that she has finished college. I figure the choices run something like this:

  1. Play in a league with Canadian and US national team players, if there's a team she can play for.
  2. Play with Lara Stalder.
  3. Play with a AHL PHF team that makes her their top paid player.

HC apparently met the three conditions outlined by the government to have their funding restored.

Species will have a recap of this weekend's Marlies shenanigans, but in the meantime here's a teaser gif.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Leafs news.

Matt Knies gets to live with the captain. Or the Tavares clan gets some free babysitting. However you want to look at it.

Speaking of babies...

Leafs lines. Make sure to analyse these in minute detail.

Happy Monday.

From The BranchesWomen's Hockey