Canadian women look for answers post-upset

The Canadian women’s hockey team used Sunday to hit the reset button after opening the world championship with back-toback losses.

Effort wasn’t the problem. Execution was in Finland’s first-ever win over Canada by a score of 4-3 on Saturday, as well as Canada’s 2-0 loss to the U.S. to open the tournament Friday.

What had been a scheduled day off from the ice for the Canadian players remained that Sunday.

The women rested at their hotel or spent time with friends and family before reconvening later in the afternoon to prepare for today’s game against Russia (1-1).

“We’re not getting the bounces that we do, or we have,” forward Meghan Agosta said. “It’s just been tough hockey. We’ve just got to figure it out, come back together as a team today.

“This is a test. This is a test for Canada. I believe in the girls and I know we believe in each other. We have a lot of skill and a lot of talent on this team. I know we could definitely play better.”

The chronic criticism of women’s international hockey is that it’s always a two-horse race for gold between Canada and the U.S.

If Finland’s upset is good for the women’s game, progress just came at the expense of Canada.

The current tournament format with the top four countries in the world in one pool and seeds fifth to eighth in another was instituted in 2012.

Canada was in the unusual position of being the only team in Pool A without a win after two games.

Getting a bye to the semifinal depends on beating Russia, the U.S. (2-0) defeating Finland (11) in regulation and Canada emerging from the three-way tie of 1-2 teams with the highest goal differential.

A doable scenario for the Canadians, but one they’ve never been in before.

“The way the circumstances unfolded last night for us, it’s important for us to get up and realize we’re still in the thick of things,” Canadian assistant coach Duane Gylywoychuk said. “We’ve got one game left against Russia that we’ve got to concentrate on.”