Lean on me: Canadian women's hockey team relies on star power to withstand American onslaught

For the first time in the Olympic tournament, Canada's women's hockey team found itself outshot and, at times, outplayed as it battled the United States in the preliminary round finale.

Yet the Canadians still pulled off the win, earning a 4-2 victory to secure the top spot in Group A.

Goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens turned away 51 shots and was instrumental in keeping Canada in the game after the U.S. got off to a dominant start, at one point hemming the Canadians in their own zone for over a minute and a half.

"It actually didn't feel too bad," said Desbiens of the workload. "I guess in the first period, yes it did. We had a lot of defensive zone time, but in the second and third we were able to get it out more often. My [defence], my forwards, did a good job of pushing the rebounds to the corner and those kinds of things allowed me to breathe."

The U.S. onslaught proved the first true test for Canada's defence, which had been tasked with very little defending in prior matches.

"The Americans did forecheck very well in the first period," said Danièle Sauvageau, who coached Canada to Olympic gold in 2002. "They really went inside-out and forced Team Canada on the wall. Then the Canadians tried to go up the wall and make short passes toward the face-off dot, which didn't work.

"They took almost one period to readjust to that, but they did in the second period and it was much better."

Desbiens' calm demeanour in net was key to withstanding the offensive pressure, both for her puck stopping efforts and her influence on the rest of the group.

WATCH | Canada fends off U.S. in preliminary action:

"She was very good with their young defence players," Sauvageau said, pointing to a moment early in the game when rookie Claire Thompson bobbled the puck near the crease. "She started talking to Thompson right after that, and she kept smiling. This is where it does calm her team."

Canada was being outshot 13-2 early when a penalty to U.S. defender Caroline Harvey offered some much-needed breathing room. It took just 36 seconds for the Canadians to capitalize on a passing sequence between Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Fillier, and Brianne Jenner, who scored from the top of the crease.

The 19-year-old Harvey spent the rest of the game watching from the bench.

Though Team USA continued to put up a high volume of shots, ultimately outnumbering Canada 53-27, many of those opportunities were relatively low-danger attempts from the perimeter.

The rest of the scoring occurred within a nine-minute span in the second period. After the Americans took the lead with a pair of quick goals, Jenner replied 26 seconds later to equalize. Jamie Lee Rattray restored Canada's advantage shortly afterwards, and Poulin made no mistake on a penalty shot, celebrating as she brought the score to 4-2.