TORONTO – With just 19 days remaining before the Milan Olympics, Team Canada forward Sarah Nurse returned to the Vancouver Goldeneyes lineup on Saturday afternoon.
Nurse has not played in the PWHL with an upper-body injury since scoring the expansion team’s first goal in the Goldeneyes’ first game on Nov. 21. Nurse was officially activated from long-term injured reserve ahead of her first game in Vancouver against the Toronto Canes on Thursday since she was exposed in June’s expansion move.
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Saturday afternoon’s game at Scotiabank Arena, home of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, was the third edition of the league’s “Battle on Bay Street.”
The 31-year-old spent her first two seasons in Toronto, scoring 17 goals and 37 points in 45 games – her career points-per-game average of 0.83 ranking third in the PWHL’s brief history. She joined the Goldeneyes as one of the team’s foundational players during the PWHL expansion signing window and was named an alternate captain.
Nurse was named to Canada’s Olympic roster for the third time earlier this month, despite missing all four rivalry series against the United States and not playing in a PWHL game for nearly eight weeks. Following the announcement on Jan. 9, Team Canada and Scepters general manager Gina Kingsbury said the Nationals believed Nurse would have enough time to recover and be “at his best” in time for Milan.
“She’s been working a lot these past few weeks to make sure she’s as healthy as possible so she doesn’t miss a beat when she comes back,” Kingsbury said. “We’re very confident she’s going to be ready to go.”
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This is not new to nurses.
A knee injury suffered during the 2022 Olympic trials raised questions about her fitness to compete in the Beijing Games. But she still made the team, stayed healthy at the start of the game, and ended up scoring 18 points in just six games, setting a single-game scoring record. She also became the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in hockey.
The Goldeneyes will play three more games before the PWHL Olympics offseason begins on January 29. Canada’s qualifiers will begin against Finland on February 5 and the United States on February 10. The gold medal match is scheduled for February 19.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
vancouver goldeneyes, olympics, women’s hockey
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