Familiar scenario in women’s title game
MALMO, Sweden — The women’s world hockey championship final pits the tested versus the rested.
Canada used up a lot more energy winning its semifinal than the United States. The Canadians beat Finland 3-0 on Friday evening after the U.S. romped 13-1 over Russia in the afternoon.
Canada and the defending champion U.S. will clash again Saturday, the 16th time in as many world championship events they’ve met in the final. The Canadians won the first eight but the Americans have taken five of the last seven world titles, including four of the last five.
“Every time you wake up for a gold-medal game, no matter the rest time you had, I think it’s always exciting and you’re going to play your heart out and with passion for sure,” Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin said.
The Americans took advantage of Russia’s soft goaltending for their lopsided win. The U.S. will also have a few more hours of recovery than the Canadians, who are taking the tack they have the more battled-hardened squad going into the final.
“Finland is a tough team to play against so going into (Saturday) I think we’re going to be ready for the U.S. and ready for that compete level, the same compete level we had to bring (Friday),” Canadian forward Natalie Spooner said.
Canada also had a surprisingly light practice schedule once the tournament started, in part because every game starting at 4 p.m. local time didn’t leave time for game-day skates.
The Canadians skated the day before Saturday’s opener — a 4-2 loss to the U.S. — and didn’t practise again until Thursday.
“We wanted to make sure they got a lot of rest before we got to this point,” Canadian head coach Doug Derraugh said. “I think it’s good we had a tough game in some ways today so that we are prepared for tomorrow’s game, which certainly is going to be tough for us.”
Canada outshot Finland 40-19 but led just 1-0 after two periods.
• Finland and Russia will play for bronze Saturday. Japan avoided relegation to the world ‘B’ championship in 2016 with a 2-1 win over Germany. Japan will play in next year’s global event in Kamloops, while the Germans drop to the second-tier tournament.