Soccer glory fires up compatriots
Canadians aim to reclaim their hockey supremacy at worlds and Olympics
CALGARY—Canada’s women’s hockey team is bent on replicating the success of its soccer counterparts.
The hockey players were up early at their Calgary hotel and glued to the dining room television when the Canadian women beat Sweden in penalties to claim Olympic soccer gold in Tokyo this month.
“We wanted to get on the ice right after that game. We were all fired up,” Canadian hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin said. “For us watching the soccer game, it was amazing. Those girls really stood together. It’s a different sport but, at the same time, we do all the same sacrifices, we do all that hard work for that moment.
“I think they really inspired us.”
Two weeks after the soccer triumph in Tokyo, Canada opens the women’s world hockey championship Friday against Finland in Calgary.
Canadian teams have won gold in 10 world championships, but not since 2012 in Burlington, Vt. Canada lost to host Finland in a semifinal in Espoo, and didn’t reach the final for the first time, in the last world championship held in 2019.
The Canadians finished third. The United States edged Finland in a shootout to claim a fifth straight world title.
Canada downed the Finns 4-1 in a pre-tournament game Wednesday.
The late-summer tournament, which was moved to Calgary after the Nova Scotia government pulled the plug on the event earlier this year, is an unusual start in Canada’s preparation for February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Twenty-nine women arrived in Calgary in late July, as Hockey Canada continued its practice of bringing the women together six to seven months before the Winter Olympics for training, games and roster selection. But this year’s preparation is different.
“Having the world championship at the front end of your centralization, there’s no template for that, definitely,” said head coach Troy Ryan, who had to choose a 25-player roster quickly. “Any time you’re selecting a national-team roster, it’s also about a body of work.
“Difficult decisions, but ones we were comfortable making at this point.”
Poulin and assistant captains Brianne Jenner, Blayre Turnbull and Jocelyne Larocque lead a Canadian side intent on reclaiming women’s hockey supremacy over the next seven months. Poulin played just a few shifts in Espoo because of a knee injury that would have still hampered her in 2020 had that world championship gone ahead.
“While it really sucked we couldn’t play that world championship, time heals a lot,” said the 30-year-old from Beauceville, Que.
“It really helped me be able to take care of myself physically and mentally.”
A third of Canada’s roster will make its world championship debut in Calgary — goaltender Kristen Campbell, defenders Ashton Bell, Claire Thompson and Ella Shelton and forwards Victoria Bach, Emma Maltais and Kristin O’Neill. That’s significant turnover on what has been traditionally a veteran squad.
Forward Jessie Eldridge of Barrie, Ont., was added to the centralized roster in July. Veteran defender Meaghan Mikkelson is sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
Mikkelson, Eldridge, defender Micah Zandee-Hart and forward Julia Gosling were left off the world championship roster.
“We’re very optimistic they’ll compete during centralization and ultimately, hopefully, find themselves on roster spots for the Olympics,” Ryan said.
Canada has played just seven international games in the more than two years since the last world championship, going 4-3 against the U.S. in 2019-20.
Pandemic restrictions not only eliminated international and domestic games for months, but even group skates where the Canadian players lived were not allowed at times.
The players invested the extra time into physical fitness. Both players and management say the women posted the highest scores of their lives in fitness testing upon arrival in Calgary.
“Everyone did the hard work on their own and when it came time to come together, we’re ready to go,” Poulin said.