Photo credit FISU http://www.fisu.net/en/2011-WU-Update-Day-9-Ice-Hockey-2644.html?idProduit=1327
ERZURUM, Turkey (CIS) – Reigning champion Canada skated to
a dominating 8-1 semifinal win over the United States on Friday
evening to qualify for the gold-medal final of the Winter
Universiade women’s hockey tournament.
IIHF game summary: http://www.erzurum2011.gov.tr/pdfts/IHW400202/C74
Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter
2011 Winter Universiade website: http://www.erzurum2011.gov.tr/english
The red-and-white team comprised exclusively of Canadian
Interuniversity Sport all-stars returns to the championship match
two years after defeating host China 3-1 in the final of the
first-ever World University Games women’s hockey tourney, in
Harbin.
Canada (6-0) will battle for gold against Finland (5-0-1) Saturday
at 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET). The Canadians needed a shootout
to edge the Finns 2-1 when the two teams met in their preliminary
round opener on Jan. 27.
Finland beat Slovakia 5-1 in Friday’s early semifinal.
Canada only led 2-1 going into the first intermission against the
United States, despite outshooting their rivals 22-4. The CIS
standouts scored three times in both the second and third periods
however and finished with a decisive 56-7 advantage in shots on
net.
Canada had easily defeated the USA 9-0 in round-robin action on
Monday.
“It kind of took us a while to get going in the first. But I
wasn’t that surprised because we haven’t played a real
competitive game in a while. I think the players were looking a bit
ahead,” said Team Canada head coach Les Lawton. “It was
just a question of getting our legs and getting back to the level
of intensity we have when we play our best hockey.”
“The key against Finland will be to shut down their top
players. They have a couple of really good players and if we can
contain them we’ll be fine,” added the Concordia
University bench boss. “I think we have a little more depth
than they do so if we can have a good first half of the game and
wear them out a little, that would definitely help.”
Université de Moncton forward Mariève Provost led the
way against the Americans with two goals and an assist. The native
of Laval, Que., opened the scoring only one minute and 50 seconds
into the contest and made it a 6-1 affair 39 seconds into the third
frame.
“There’s always a big rivalry in women’s hockey
between Canada and the USA and we wanted to try and put the game
away as quickly as we could,” said Provost, one of six
returnees from the 2009 championship team. “Personally, I
wasn’t having a great tournament before today so it was
really important for me to step up in the semifinals. It feels
great right now.”
“We’re going to have to play great tomorrow to beat
Finland. They’re a very good team. They have a very imposing
goalie so we’ll have to make sure we shoot lots of pucks at
her.”
Also scoring for Canada were Western Ontario’s Ellie
Seedhouse of Whitby, Ont., Wilfrid Laurier’s Candice Styles
of Orangeville, Ont., Manitoba’s Addie Miles of Winnipeg,
York’s Kelsey Webster of Duncan, B.C., St. Francis
Xavier’s Suzanne Fenerty of Cole Harbour, N.S., and
Montreal’s Kim Deschênes of Saint-Quentin, N.B.
Styles made it 3-1 with her eighth of the competition 55 seconds
into the middle stanza, tying her for second in the
tournament’s goal-scoring race.
Laurier netminder Liz Knox of Stouffville, Ont., earned the win
after making four saves in 40 minutes of action. Brock’s Beth
Clause of Hamilton took over in the third and turned aside the two
pucks fired her way.
Heather Rossi finished with 48 saves in front of the American
cage.
Despite the lopsided score Canada did struggle on the power play
converting only one of nine opportunities. The USA went
0-for-1.
SCORING
SUMMARY
Canada 8, USA 1
FIRST PERIOD
SCORING:
1. CAN Mariève Provost (2) (Erin Lally), 1:50
2. CAN Ellie Seedhouse (3) (Jacalyn Sollis), 12:46
3. USA Charlotte Hoium (2) (Lindsay Reihl), 15:39
PENALTIES:
Justine Ducie (USA) delay of game, 3:00;
Rachel Black (USA) tripping, 4:41;
Ramey Weaver (USA) body checking, 9:03;
Megan Winters (USA) cross checking, 10:44.
SECOND PERIOD
SCORING:
4. CAN Candice Styles (8) (Suzanne Fenerty), 0:55
5. CAN Addie Miles (1) (Ann-Sophie Bettez), 11:12
6. CAN Kelsey Webster (2) (Addie Miles, Breanne George), 17:49
PENALTIES:
Mariève Provost (CAN) elbowing, 5:01.
THIRD PERIOD
SCORING:
7. CAN Mariève Provost (3) (Kim Deschênes), 0:39
8. CAN Suzanne Fenerty (1) (Mariève Provost), 7:29
9. CAN Kim Deschênes (4) (unassisted), 18:12 PP
PENALTIES:
Erica Wynn (USA) slashing, 2:09;
Shea Crawford (USA) delay of game, 5:28;
Heather Rossi (USA) charging, 11:18;
Ramey Weaver (USA) hooking, 14:28;
Shea Crawford (USA) cross checking, 17:59.
GOALS (by period)
CAN: 2-3-3: 8
USA: 1-0-0: 1
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
CAN: 22-16-18: 56
USA: 4-1-2: 7
POWER PLAY:
CAN: 0-9
USA: 0-1
GOALTENDERS
CAN – Liz Knox (W, 3-0, 5 shots, 4 saves, 1 GA, 40:00)
CAN – Beth Clause (2 shots, 2 saves, 0 GA, 20:00)
USA – Heather Rossi (L, 56 shots, 48 saves, 8 GA, 60:00)
REFEREE: Zuzanna Findorova (SVK)
LINESMEN: Magdalena Cerhitova (SVK), Merve Sarimert (TUR)
ATTENDANCE: 1750
START: 20:00
END: 21:54
LENGTH: 1:54
TEAM CANADA
SCHEDULE & RESULTS (local time)
Thursday, Jan. 27: Canada 2, Finland 1 (1-0 in shootout)
Friday, Jan. 28: Canada 3, Slovakia 0
Sunday, Jan. 30: Canada 14, Great Britain 0
Monday, Jan. 31: Canada 9, USA 0
Wednesday, Feb. 2: Canada 11, Turkey 0
Friday, Feb. 4 (semifinal #1): Finland 5, Slovakia 1
Friday, Feb. 4 (semifinal #2): Canada 8, USA 1
Saturday, Feb. 5, 9:30 (bronze): USA vs. Slovakia
Saturday, Feb. 5, 13:00 (final): Canada vs. Finland
PRELIMINARY ROUND
STANDINGS (FINAL)
GP
W
OTW OTL
L
GF
GA PTS
1. Canada
5
4
1
0
0
39
1
14
2. Finland
5
4
0
1
0
49
3 13
3. Slovakia
5
3
0
0
2
33
11 9
4.
USA
5
2
0
0
3
25
18 6
5. Great
Britain5
1
0
0
4
11
36 3
6. Turkey
5
0
0
0
5
0
88 0
Scoring system:
3 points for a win in regulation
2 points for a win in overtime or shootout
1 point for a loss in overtime or shootout
Legend: W (win), OTW (OT win), OTL (OT loss), L (loss)
-CIS-