Canadians bow out in semi
ESPOO, Finland — Canada won’t play for gold at the women’s world hockey championship for the first time in tournament history.
Finland earned a stunning 4-2 semifinal win over Canada on Saturday. The Finns will play for gold on home ice today against the United States, which dispatched Russia 8-0 in the other semifinal.
Canada will face the Russians today in the bronze medal contest.
“It’s unreal and on top of that, to do it here on home ice, we’ve been working so hard for so many years now,” Finnish assistant captain Michelle Karvinen said. “It’s not just one good game. It’s something we actually have earned.”
The U.S. and Canada had met in the final of all 18 previous world championship finals dating back to the first in 1990.
Canada beat Finland 6-1 to cap the group stage of this year’s tournament Tuesday. But the Finns had the better special teams and goaltending Saturday. In her 200th career game for Finland, goalie Noora Raty made 43 saves for the win before an announced gathering of 4,311 in her hometown.
Ronja Savolainen scored twice, including an empty-net goal, for Finland. Jenni Hiirikowski had a goal and an assist and Susanna Tapani also scored.
Jamie Lee Rattray and Loren Gabel countered for the Canadians, who trailed 3-2 after the second. Shannon Szabados stopped 15 shots in her first loss against the Finns in 18 starts.
Finland’s disruption of the established world order atop women’s hockey will be viewed by some as good for the female game. But it was difficult for Canada to feel any positives.
“It’s hard to have that perspective as a player in the game,” captain Brianne Jenner said.
“Right now, it just feels like a loss for Team Canada, which we never like to have at the world championships. We’re pretty disappointed with that outcome. We’ll give credit to Finland for a game well played.”
Canada was without captain Marie-Philip Poulin for all but part of one period at the world championship. The highestscoring player on the Canadian roster injured her knee again last Monday attempting a return.
The loss of forward Blayre Turnbull in the first period Saturday further eroded Canada’s attack. The player head coach Perry Pearn called “the conscience of the team,” was in a vulnerable position when Savolainen pushed her and Turnbull tumbled headfirst into the boards. No penalty was called. Turnbull stayed down for a minute and left the ice with assistance and didn’t return.
“To me, what happened there is I think embarrassing for women’s hockey because checking from behind at every level is not acceptable,” Pearn said. “If that was one of our players on a Finn, I would want it called.
“There’s a potential for someone to break a neck and for a veteran official like the group like we had, for them not to make that call is really wrong.”
After losing to the Finns for the first time in a preliminary-round game at the 2017 world championship, Canada had gone 7-0, until Saturday.
Canada’s special teams had been effective through five games. But going 0-for-4 with a player advantage, including 90-plus seconds of a five-on-three early in the second, put it at a disadvantage.