Canada overwhelms Finns 6-1
KAMLOOPS — Thursday’s win for Team Canada at the IIHF women’s hockey world championships was brought to you by the Letter J.
Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Johnston, Jillian Saulnier and Jennifer Wakefield scored in an eight-minute, two-second span in the second period to lead the host squad to a 6-1 triumph over Finland before a crowd of over 4,000 at the Sandman Centre on the final day of preliminary-round action.
With the win, Canada finished 2-1-0, which was good enough for second spot in Group A, behind the Americans (3-0-0). Both teams advanced automatically to Sunday’s semifinals. Canada plays the 7:30 game that night.
The third-place Finns (1-2-0) play the second-place team from Group B, the Czechs (2-1-0), in Friday’s quarter-finals. The Russians (0-3-0), who came in fourth in Group A, meet Group B leader Sweden (3-0-0). Game times were still to be announced. Canada will play the top-seeded team advancing Sunday.
Thursday wasn’t without its drama for Canada, though. Star forward Meghan Agosta had to be helped off the ice late in the second period after a knee-on-knee collision with teammate Tara Watchorn.
Agosta was prone on the ice for a time. She got up, tried to make it to the bench, but went back down to the ice. She was eventually helped to the bench by Saulnier and Meaghan Mikkelson and went directly to the dressing room.
Agosta, a three-time Olympian who was voted the most valuable player of the Vancouver 2010 Games after leading the tournament in scoring, came back out for the start of the third period.
Agosta set up Marie-Philip Poulin for a onetimer in the slot at the 1:04 mark of the first period to open the scoring, but the smothering checking of the Finns and the goaltending of Meeri Raisanen kept them quiet for the rest of the first period.
Raisanen was sharp, kicking out the left pad to stone Johnston and Natalie Spooner on separate chances, and then standing her ground to thwart Emily Clark from in close.
Johnston chipped in a rebound down low at 8:04 of the second period to put Canada up 2-0. The Finns cut the margin to 2-1 a mere 18 seconds later when Petra Nieminen roofed a shot off a faceoff past Emerance Maschmeyer just three seconds into a power play, but the Canadians grabbed the momentum back when Jenner scored on a wraparound at 13:35.
Saulnier, who’s quickly becoming Canada’s sparkplug at this tournament, hammered one home off a faceoff at 14:33, and then Wakefield took advantage of a falling Finn and went in all alone on Raisanen and beat her along the ice to the glove side.
Wakefield added another goal with 1:42 left.