National Post (National Edition)
More target practice as Canada breezes by Finland
GANGNEUNG • Finnish goaltender Noora Raty may be one of the best female puck stoppers on the planet, but her opponent in the other crease on Tuesday night knew what was coming.
“Nora’s a great goalie, but I face these girls every day in practice so I know what they can do,” Shannon Szabados said after her team’s 4-1 victory over Finland at the Kwandong Hockey Centre. “This team’s in a good spot right now. We’ve got some amazing forwards with some poise and patience and some great shots.”
No one else should be surprised given the Canadian women’s ability to crank it up in an Olympic year. In improving to 2-0 in the tournament, they’ve now outscored the opposition 9-1 and have clinched a bye to next week’s semifinal.
Though Tuesday’s contest against the Finns was hard on the eyes at times — ragged play by both teams, an overabundance of whistles, some shoddy officiating and little flow — the Canadians still managed to exert their dominance.
This was the same Finnish team that had defeated them 4-3 in a preliminary-round game at the 2017 world championship, but midway through this contest had managed just five shots on net. Canada outshot Finland 32-23 for the game.
With just the U.S. remaining in pool play, the Canadians find themselves in a preferential position, feeding off the momentum they’ve already created.
“We’re happy with where we’re at but we’re never satisfied,” Canadian coach Laura Schuler said. “We always want to be better. That’s one of the great things about our girls that makes them so special.”
“We’ve got great kids (nine rookies) and we’ve got great energy. There’s lots of real positives in our play.”
Schuler grumbled the familiar hockey coach’s lament that once her team took a 4-0 lead it got a little too hungry for more goals at the expense of some defensive play. That’s just being picky, however.
You know that the Americans are well aware of how dominant their rivals have been, a potential psychological advantage for Canada going into a round robin meeting with them on Thursday. The U.S. fell behind Finland in their matchup and needed an empty-net goal to record a 3-1 victory. The U.S. defeated the Olympic Athletes from Russia 5-0 in the late game on Tuesday, securing semifinal berths for both Canada and the U.S.
The Canadian offence has been impressive, with each of the four lines capable of producing. Veteran Meghan Agosta got things started just 35 seconds into the game, depositing the puck past Raty after taking a perfect two-on-one pass from Melodie Daoust.
“Every line has their own kind of chemistry,” said Agosta, who returned the favour with an assist on Daoust’s goal in the second period. “It doesn’t matter who puts the puck in the net as long as we’re successful at the end of the game.
“We’ve started something really good here and looking forward to continuing this journey and this mission that we’re on.”
The Canadian players have been so schooled to say next to nothing bolder than the one-game-at-a-time drivel that it’s tough to get a read on how confident they are.
But judging by the smiles and a roundabout acknowledgment from Agosta, through two games they are starting to look formidable.
“It’s a short-term competition. We need to go out there and fix the little things we need to work on and continue with the good things we’ve been doing.”