Finns in Canucks’ way at women’s worlds
Winner of Friday’s semifinal earns chance to play U. S. or Russia for gold
Finland’s coach said Canada looked “shaky” in a previous meeting at the women’s world hockey championship and that could be used as extra motivation by Canada for the rematch.
The two countries meet for a second straight game in Friday’s semifinal. Canada beat Finland 6- 2 to cap the preliminary round Tuesday.
“They were shaky. I’ve never seen them shaky against Finland before,” Pasi Mustonen said.
Canadian head coach Doug Derraugh didn’t bristle at Mustonen’s assessment, however.
“I don’t disagree with that completely,” Derraugh said Thursday following practice at Malmo Isstadion. “I do think we stuck to the game plan really well. We were patient. We didn’t execute as well as I would have liked.”
Defending champion United States and Russia meet in Friday’s other semifinal in what is also back- to- back meetings for those countries. The semifinal winners advance to the championship game and the losers play for the bronze medal Saturday.
Canada started slowly Tuesday against Finland and was outshot 6- 5 in the opening period. Up 2- 1 late in the second, Canada’s attack began to solve Finland’s frustrating defence.
The Finns now engage Canada in all three zones of the ice thanks to some puck- moving defenders. Prior to the 2014 Winter Games, they put all their efforts into defending their half of the ice and hoped for a lucky goal.
But Finland hasn’t abandoned clogging up the middle lane and forcing shooters to the outside.
“For sure it’s frustrating for us,” Canadian captain Marie- Philip Poulin said. “We had trouble getting into the zone in the first period. We wanted to score right away.
“Patience is going to be key tomorrow. We know they have a great team in the first period and we have to put pressure on them right away. Put a lot of shots on net and we’ll see what opens up.”
Finland has never beaten Canada at the most senior level of international women’s hockey. The closest they’ve come is a 6- 6 tie in an exhibition game back in 1999, but they’re capable of keeping the score close into the third period.
Canada needed an empty- net goal to beat them 3- 1 at the Four Nations Cup in November. Finland last finished on the world championship podium in 2011, when they won bronze.
Finland’s star forward Michelle Karvinen will be back in the lineup Friday. She did not play preliminary round games against either Canada or the U. S. because of the flu, but had a goal and an assist in a 3- 0 quarter- final win over Switzerland.
Eveliina Suonpaa, 19, was in Finland’s net Tuesday against Canada, but 25- year- old Meeri Raisenen has started all other games including the quarter- final.
The U. S. and Russia play first Friday followed by Canada and Finland. The winner of the latter semifinal will have less than 24 hours to recover before the goldmedal game.