Lean on me: Canadian women's hockey team rely 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