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A Whirlwind Year for the Fastest Woman in Hockey

Kendall Coyne Schofield helped the U.S. win the Four Nations Cup this month. Liam Richards/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan — Kendall Coyne Schofield abruptly gasped with delight. She held up her phone to photograph a Great Dane padding in the lobby of Saskatoon’s Delta Bessborough hotel.

“My sister-in-law has the exact same-colored dog,” said Coyne Schofield, 26, the American women’s hockey team star.

It was a rare distraction for Coyne Schofield, whose eyes have been fixed on her professional and personal goals this year. A five-time world champion, she won her first Olympic gold medal in February, when the United States defeated its archrival Canada, 3-2, in a dramatic final shootout that ended the Canadians’ reign as the four-time Olympic champions.