By Trevor Stynes and Amy Tennery
MILAN, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Canada’s veteran forward Natalie Spooner hit a satisfying new milestone in her comeback story on Saturday, as she scored her team’s opening goal of the Milano Cortina Games after a long road back from injury.
Spooner leapt off the ice in excitement as she sent in the power play goal midway through the second period of their 4-0 win over Switzerland, soaking in the raucous cheers of the flag-waving Canadian fans at Milano Rho arena.
It was the stuff of dreams for the four-times Olympian, who returned to the ice a year ago from a nine-month layoff after tearing her ACL.
“Coming into the tournament, I didn’t really know where my role would exactly be, but I was just willing to take on any role to have an impact on the team,” Spooner, 35, told Reuters.
“To be able to get that first one and get some momentum for our team was super special.”
The 2024 PWHL MVP is a key part of a strong veteran corps for the five-times champions, who had a wrench thrown in their plans early in Milan when four norovirus cases on the Finnish team forced the postponement of their Thursday opener.
“Obviously, we would have loved to have already played a game, but now we’re kind of in it,” said Spooner, one of 16 returning members from the winning 2022 Beijing team.
“From period one to period three, we definitely improved. And I think that’s what we’re going to have to do every single game is just build each period, build our specialty teams, make sure that we’re ready for further down in the tournament.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Milan; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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