Canada's women's hockey coach calls loss to U.S. 'an embarrassment to our country'

To say that Canada's women's hockey coach Laura Schuler was disappointed in her team after a 5-2 loss to the United States on Sunday would be an understatement as the bench boss called the team's performance "an embarrassment to our country."

"We played awful," Schuler told reporters after the game in Quebec City. "It was just a horrible performance from all of our players and we'll address it tonight and make sure we're better and ready in Boston [Wednesday night]."

"Obviously we've played significantly better against them. We have been playing better and that was not a good example of how we can play. We need to be better as we go forward."

Brianna Decker scored twice for the U.S. at Quebec City's Videotron Centre to open the pre-Olympic exhibition series. Hilary Knight, Annie Pankowski and Alex Carpenter also scored.

Meghan Agosta and Jillian Saulnier had Canada's goals.

"It wasn't the best game for us that's for sure," Agosta told reporters. "We're a lot better than that and we just need to refocus."

Canada, the four-time defending Olympic champions, play a total of six exhibition games against the reigning silver-medallist Americans before the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February. They meet next on Wednesday night in Boston.

The archrivals also play Dec. 3 in St. Paul, Minn., Dec. 5 in Winnipeg, Dec. 15 in San Jose, Calif., and Dec. 17 in Edmonton.

The Americans will also host the annual Four Nations Cup next month. The tournament runs Nov. 5-12 in Tampa, Fla., and includes Canada, Sweden and Finland.