Canadian women skating for hockey gold
“THEY CAME HARD AND SCORED A COUPLE OF QUICK GOALS AND THEN THEY SLOWED IT DOWN.”
NOORA RATY
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Canada took a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old and went on to beat Finland 5-1 in a semifinal of the IIHF women’s world hockey championship Friday.
Canada will play in the final against the United States, which beat Switzerland 9-0 in the other semifinal game Friday. Finland plays the Swiss for the bronze medal.
Canadian head coach Dan Church said it was important for the Canadians to have a fast start and to get bodies in front of Finnish goaltender Noora Raty. They did both. Montrealer Caroline Ouellette opened the scoring at 3:32 when she swept down the left wing and cut in toward Raty. The goaltender sealed off the near post but Ouellette went to the far side and scored on a backhander.
“Catherine Ward did a great job on the transition and Marie-philip (Poulin) saw me and I was able to get a semi-breakaway,” said Ouellette. “I thought I could get her to cheat a bit on the near side and that gave me an opening.”
Laura Fortino of Hamilton made it 2-0 at 4:53. She sidestepped a defender at the blue line and took advantage of traffic in front to score on a 35-foot slapshot.
“We came out, worked hard and got to the net and did the things we wanted to do,” said Church. “We won the first five minutes and that was one of our goals.”
Finnish head coach Pekka Hamalainen called timeout after Fortino’s goal and his team settled down defensively. They slowed the Canadians with an aggressive forecheck but failed to generate any offence. Canada outshot Finland 43-15.
“They came hard and scored a couple of quick goals and then they slowed it down,” said Raty, who kept Finland close in a 3-2 loss in the preliminary round. “We played our best in the second period.”
Raty said the Finns now have to get ready to play for their 11th bronze medal at the world championships.
“It gets kind of boring playing for the bronze but Canada and the U.S. are the two best teams so we have to be satisfied with the bronze,” Raty said.
Meghan Agosta of Ruthven, Ont., made it 3-0 when she scored on a scramble in front at 2:06 of the second period. Marie-philip Poulin of Beauceville, Que., added a goal at 12:12 of the third period. Courtney Birchard of Mississauga, Ont., added a power-play goal at 18:20.
Penalties were a major problem for the Finns in the early stages of the tournament but it was the Canadians who lacked discipline Friday. Finland took only two minor penalties while Canada found itself shorthanded seven times.
The Finns were on the power play when they scored on a delayed penalty at 10:32 of the second period. Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados had no chance as Karolina Rantamaki tipped in Saija Tarkki’s slapshot.
“I think we have to be a little bit better at keeping our sticks on the ice,” said Church. “At times, it was hard for our players to adjust because the calls were a little inconsistent.
“The physical stuff I’ll take because that’s the way we want to play the game. The stick stuff and the holding stuff, we have to do a better job on.”