Bailey Bram scores first international goal with Team Canada

Meghan Agosta-Marciano adds hat trick en route to 8-0 victory over Finland

Bailey Bram in action with the Brampton Thunder of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. 

KANATA, Ont. — On a record-breaking night for women’s hockey, Bailey Bram made a little history of her own.

An announced 18,013 people — the most-ever for a women’s hockey game, said organizers — were on hand at Scotiabank Place on Friday to see Bram’s first goal at the international level with Team Canada as she helped her club to an 8-0 victory over Finland at the 2013 IIHF Women’s World Championship.

Meghan Agosta-Marciano, a star forward with the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, scored a hat trick while Brianne Jenner added a pair of goals in a game where it seemed like every Canadian shot went in.

At the 14:25 mark of the first period, the 22-year-old Bram received a great pass in the slot from Caroline Ouellette, who missed Canada’s 13-0 rout of Switzerland on Wednesday with an upper-body injury, and whipped it past Finnish goalie Noora Räty to open up the scoring.

“[Wednesday], I was hoping to get it,” said the forward. “Playing Switzerland, 13 goals, and I didn’t get one. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s never going to come.’ So today, to start it off, it was great.”

Bram, a native of Ste. Anne, Man., was happy and relieved to have gotten that first goal and now has a nice souvenir to take home.

In the three round-robin games of this year’s tournament, Bram has also registered an assist.

“It was her first national women’s goal, so I think she was pretty excited,” said defenceman Courtney Birchard, who is also a teammate of Bram’s with the Brampton Thunder in the CWHL. “She’s always very excited though and she always has a great attitude no matter what.”

Finland did not make it easy at first for Canada and managed to stand their ground for over 14 minutes, but Bram’s goal opened the floodgates.

For her part, Bram was aw-shucks about it.

“I just kind of shot the puck on net,” she said. “It wasn’t anything pretty, but to see it go in and get the monkey off my back was definitely very exciting.”

With a record-setting crowd in attendance, all eight Canadians goals elicited thunderous cheers and the crowd’s enthusiasm did not go unnoticed by the players.

“We knew it was going to be big, but when you see them singing and dancing, and during the anthem, it’s definitely memories for us,” said forward Jayna Hefford. “We are seeing lots of girls in the hotel and around practice. It’s just nice to see so many girls playing hockey…it’s really rewarding.”

Ouellette also reached a milestone in her international playing career, recording her 200th career game for Team Canada to make the night even more memorable.

The veteran is third all-time in games played and is also third in career points, with 230, 82 of them goals.

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By: Curtis Ng
Posted: Apr 6 2013 8:47 pm
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