The New York Sirens made PWHL history this weekend, as forward Abby Roque — who grew up in Michigan — scored the second-year league’s first-ever Michigan goal against the Ottawa Charge on Saturday.

With Ottawa leading 3-1 in the game's third period, Roque skated behind the Charge’s net, snapping the puck under the crossbar to register her sixth goal of the season.

A very rare trick shot, "The Michigan" entered the sport's lingo in the 1990s, after University of Michigan men's hockey winger Mike Legg successfully replicated minor-leaguer Bill Armstrong’s lacrosse-style "high wrap" goal during a 1996 NCAA Tournament game against Minnesota.

Requiring deft mechanics, the shooter lifts the puck with their stick, slotting it into the top near corner of the net behind an unsuspecting goalkeeper.

"There was a lot around the net and I just I knew I had time behind the net to pick it up, [so] I thought I may as well," said Roque after her performance. "It’s something that has become a joke and we say every day when I come to the rink: 'Michigan today.'"

"The opportunity presented itself, so I had to try."

New York Sirens forward Abby Roque flicks in the first-ever PWHL "Michigan goal" against the Ottawa Charge.
New York’s Abby Roque hit the first Michigan goal in PWHL history on Saturday. (Rich Graessle/Getty Images)

Roque joins short list of "Michigan" goalscorers

Roque — Team USA's first-ever Indigenous hockey player — now inks her name onto a short list of athletes who have scored a Michigan goal.

The first successful major pro league attempt came in the NHL, when Carolina Hurricanes winger Andrei Svechnikov converted the trick shot against the Calgary Flames in October 2019.

On the women's side, PWHL history-maker Roque is just the third athlete to claim Michigan goal success.

Slovakia's teen star Nela Lopušanová paved the way, flicking in the first-ever women's Michigan shot during the 2023 U18 IIHF World Championships at just 14 years old.

Leading the charge Stateside is Brown University forward Margot Norehad. As a freshman for the Bears, Norehad netted a Michigan during a February 2024 NCAA game against Quinnipiac.

While Roque's shot wasn't enough to secure a Sirens win on Saturday, she did manage to her individual 16-point season total with style.

For the 22nd time in 22 tournaments, the U.S. women’s hockey team will play in the final of the IIHF Women’s World Championship.

The U.S. defeated Czechia, 9-1, at CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario, on Saturday to book a spot in this year’s championship game (Sunday 7pm ET, NHL Network). Team USA will play the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal (Canada vs. Switzerland).

The U.S. kicked off scoring into the first period with an Amanda Kessel power play goal (video embedded below).

While Kessel’s was the only goal scored in the first period, the U.S. opened the floodgates in the second with two goals from Hilary Knight, one from Abbey Murphy, one from Abby Roque, and another from Kessel.

Czechia also recorded its lone goal of the game the second period with this snipe from 16-year-old Adéla Šapovalivová, who is making her second senior world championship appearance in Brampton (video embedded below).

 

With the win, the U.S. women’s hockey team continues its unprecedented streak of World Championship finals appearances. Beginning with the first IIHF Women’s World Championship in 1990, the U.S. has qualified for the final each and every time, winning the world title on nine occasions.

Archrival Canada has made the world championship final every year save one: 2019, when the Canadians were upset by Finland, 4-2, in the semifinal round.

Women’s Hockey World Championship – Year-by-Year Finals History

  • 1990: Canada def. United States, 5–2
  • 1992: Canada def. United States, 8–0
  • 1994: Canada def. United States, 6–3
  • 1997: Canada def. United States, 4–3 (OT)
  • 1999: Canada def. United States, 3–1
  • 2000: Canada def. United States, 3–2 (OT)
  • 2001: Canada def. United States, 3–2
  • 2003: Tournament cancelled due to SARS outbreak
  • 2004: Canada def. United States, 2–0
  • 2005: United States def. Canada, 1–0 (SO)
  • 2007: Canada def. United States, 5–1
  • 2008: United States def. Canada, 4–3
  • 2009: United States def. Canada, 4–1
  • 2011: United States def. Canada, 3–2 (OT)
  • 2012: Canada def. United States, 5–4 (OT)
  • 2013: United States def. Canada, 3–2
  • 2015: United States def. Canada, 7–5
  • 2016: United States def. Canada, 1–0 (OT)
  • 2017: United States def. Canada, 3–2 (OT)
  • 2019: United States def. Finland, 2–1 (SO)
  • 2020: Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19
  • 2021: Canada def. United States, 3–2 (OT)
  • 2022: Canada def. United States 2–1

U.S. hockey player Abbey Murphy entered the IIHF history books on Friday.

Murphy, 20, scored just seven seconds into the United States’ group play win over Switzerland at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Brampton, Ontario.

After Abby Roque won the opening faceoff for the U.S., Murphy skated by two Swiss defenders and managed to get a wide angle shot past Swiss goalie Saskia Maurer.

The previous record for fastest goal in an IIHF Women’s World Championship game was 13 seconds, set by Germany’s Maren Valenti in a consolation round game against Switzerland on April 17, 1994.

Murphy, a member of the 2022 silver-medal winning U.S. Olympic team, just concluded her sophomore season at the University of Minnesota. She made her senior world championship debut in 2021, but was cut from the U.S. roster ahead of last summer’s world championship tournament in Denmark.

All told, eight different American players scored in the 9-1 victory over Switzerland: Caroline Harvey (2), Murphy, Hannah Bilka, Becca Gilmore, Abby Roque, Amanda Kessel, Cayla Barnes, and Gabrielle Hughes. For both Hughes and Gilmore, it marked their first goals as members of the U.S. senior national team.

Rahel Enzler, a junior at the University of Maine, scored Switzerland’s lone goal. It was the first time Switzerland scored against the U.S. women’s hockey team in world championship competition since April 6, 2008.

Also on Friday at Women’s Hockey Worlds, Canadian living legend Marie Philip-Poulin scored her 100th and 101st career goals during her team’s 5-1 win over Czechia.

The U.S. and Canada are both 2-0-0 in group play and are likely to meet twice during the world championship tournament (in the final game of group play and then again in the knockout round). Canada is aiming to win its third straight world championship title in Brampton.