In Wednesday's In Thursday’s quarterfinal game at the IIHF Women’s World Championship, the USA outshot Germany 51-12 and dominated territorially, but ran into strong goaltending from Sandra Abstreiter and a disciplined German team and escaped with a closer-than-expected 3-0 victory.
“It can be frustrating but you have to be ready for that and overcome some adversity,” said Lacey Eden, who scored the USA’s second goal. “Adversity isn’t the worst thing in the world going into the quarters and we got the win – that’s all that matters.”
Despite being 22 years of age – she turns 23 in early May – and a college hockey player, this is already Eden’s fifth World Championship. Her first was 2021 in the bubble in Calgary and won a gold medal in 2023 in Brampton, Ont.
In the four years she’s played at the University of Wisconsin, Eden has had a tremendous amount of success, being part of three national championship teams and reaching the final the other year. There are four other Wisconsin players on Team USA – Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey and goaltender Ava McNaughton – as well as a few others on opposing nations.
“It was great coming off of a great season there but, once you get here, you just focus in on the World Championship,” she said.
The Hockey News’ Ian Kennedy has ranked Eden sixth for this year’s PWHL Draft, behind current USA teammates Abbey Murphy and Haley Winn. As is the case with Murphy, Eden’s decision on whether enter this year’s draft is of great interest to the women’s hockey world but, like Murphy, she isn’t ready to make that decision public yet, assuring that an announcement will be coming “soon enough.”