Canada advances to women’s world hockey semifinals with win over Sweden
Canada survived tenacious goaltending to take another step toward defending its women’s hockey world title.
Sarah Potomak’s second-period goal and her assist on Erin Ambrose’s third-period goal helped lead to a 3-0 quarterfinal victory over Sweden on Thursday.
Veteran defender Jocelyne Larocque scored her first World Cup goal in her 10th appearance at the tournament, while goalkeeper Ann-Renée Desbiens made a nine-save finish.
Emma Söderberg, who manages the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs’ net, was a workhorse in Sweden’s net with 54 saves.
“It was a test of our patience, but also a test of our discipline,” Canadian assistant captain Blayre Turnbull said. “It’s really easy in games like this to get very individual and try to solve the problem yourself and get away from our team systems.
“I’m really proud of our group that we stuck to our game plan even though we didn’t have the offensive success that we wanted.”
Canada faces beleaguered Switzerland in a semifinal on Saturday with the winner advancing to Sunday’s gold medal match in Herning, Denmark.
Minus captain Lara Stalder and top scorer Alina Mueller due to covid-19, as well as two other injured players, the Swiss won a 2-1 shootout over Japan in their quarter-final.
The Czech Republic, coached by former Canadian defender Carla MacLeod, scripted the upset of the tournament so far, reaching the semifinals for the first time with a 2-1 overtime win over Finland.
The U.S. had an easier time of it in its 12-1 quarterfinal win over Hungary to face the Czechs on Saturday.
American forward Hilary Knight’s goals and assists to reach 87 career World Cup points surpassed Canada’s Hayley Wickenheiser for the all-time record.
Canada and Sweden met in a world championship game for the first time since 2009, although the Canadians beat the Swedes 11-0 in an Olympic quarterfinal in February.
Soderberg gave up nine goals over two periods in Beijing before being pulled, but she gobbled up the puck Thursday.
– I think we came out much stronger. I feel that I came out better than I did in Beijing as well, says Soderberg. “We didn’t let them do what they wanted.
“I was able to stay a lot calmer. I think I wanted to do a little too much in the Canada game in Beijing. That kind of penalty punished me and us.”
Sweden, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, was relegated in the 2019 World Championships.
The national team then boycotted international competition in protest against compensation and other competition issues. The dispute with Sweden’s confederation was resolved later that year.
The Covid-19 pandemic eliminated World Cup second-tier Sweden to win promotion, but world No. 8 replaced Russia in this year’s 10-nation tournament.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has banned Russia from tournaments because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We came here in bad circumstances of course, but we hadn’t had the opportunity to qualify for the top worlds yet,” Söderberg said.
“This is where we want to be. This is where our program should be. The way we’re playing in this tournament is a big step forward.”
Canada generated sustained pressure in Sweden’s end for long stretches of the first and second periods, but Soderberg helped limit the Canadians to a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.
“She’s a phenomenal goaltender. She moves really well, Laroque said. “She made some huge saves. It was a test for us to stick to the game plan and do the little things right. I think it’s good. We had to play really good hockey and keep the pressure on them.
“We’ll be able to take a lot from, I’d say, the second half of the game going into the semi.”
Canadian head coach Troy Ryan continued his line juggling from the previous day’s practice, notably moving Victoria Bach to a trio alongside Marie-Philip Poulin and Brianne Jenner, and Sarah Nurse getting ice time with Sarah Fillier and Emily Clark.
“I don’t think there are any natural fits,” Ryan observed. “It’s not like we loved any of the changes. We told them when we made those changes that we’re going to keep changing and trying to find something that fits, until there’s no more games to be honest.”
Ambrose threaded a shot from the point over Söderberg’s shoulder at 13:10 of the third period.
Three power-play chances in the first 10 minutes of the second yielded no goals for Canada, which went 0-for-8 overall, but Potomak scored with a highlight-reel even strength.
She scraped the puck off the neutral zone boards, then sliced off Swedish defenseman Maja Persson Nylen who went backhand to forehand to solve Söderberg at 13:56 of the second period.
“It was a beautiful goal and it’s something we’ve all seen from her before,” Turnbull said. “It was great for her to get on the scoreboard like that and it was very timely.”
Outscored 14-1 in the first period, the Swedes held Canada scoreless until 17:11 when Renata Fast, under the goal line, fed Larocque in front for a successful wrist shot top shelf.