Canada Survives An Early Scare

 

PHOTO FROM OF CBC

 

The Women’s World Hockey Championships were originally supposed to be held in Nova Scotia last year in Halifax and Truro but due to the Covid-19 pandemic the tournament was pushed to this year but back in May just weeks before the tournament was to start the province out of no where pulled the plug on the event leaving both Hockey Canada and the IIHF scrambling to find a host city, Thankfully the city of Calgary stepped up as a host allowing this tournament to take place. Tonight, the tournament would open with the host Canadians who are looking for redemption after winning a Bronze Medal in 2019 taking on the Lioness’s form Finland who in the previous tournament would upset team Canada in the Semi final round before going on and collecting a Silver Medal, Finland’s best finish at this event. These two teams met in a pretournament game on Wednesday night and Canada despite falling behind early in that contest would rebound and come away with the 4-1 victory.

 

In goal for Finland would be Anni Kaisala taking over for the Finnish legend Noora Ratty who is missing this year’s event because she needed knee surgery. In goal for the host Canadians would be Ann-Renee Desbiens who has been a member of the National Program since 2015. Friday’s contest would start exactly how Wednesday’s tune up game did Finland would come out with lots of energy and Canada would not have an answer and it would result in Canada falling behind early in the contest as Nelli Laitinen would send a shot from the point that would brush the midsection of the defender for Canada and the deflection would beat Canada’s Ann-Renee glove side and it would be Finland with the early 1-0 lead just two and a half minutes into the opening frame. Wednesday we would see Canada play shorthanded a total of eleven times, the other night Canada would kill off all eleven penalties. In the first period penalties would once again come into play as Finland would see themselves getting a five on three advantage and this time Finland would solve Canada’s penalty kill when with a point shot once again Finland’s Minnamari Tuominen would find an opening on the blocker side of Desbiens and Finland to the surprise of everyone on the Canadian bench and everyone watching at home would see their lead double to 2-0. Most of the opening period we would see the lioness’s controlling the play and after twenty minutes they would head to the dressing room with the two-goal lead and a shell-shocked Team Canada looking for answers.

I don’t know what was said in the first intermission but fans at home would see an entirely different Canadian team. Right from the opening face off of period two Canada would play with a purpose and they would literally dominate every aspect of this second period. Canada would see momentum swing heavily in their favor and that would see shot attempts and scoring opportunities pile up, but Kaisala was fantastic in goal keeping the door closed. Late in the second when it looked as if Finland would still be leading after forty minutes Canada would finally manage to break the goose egg and solve the Finnish goalie as Jamie Lee Rattray would shovel in a lose puck after an attempt by veteran Natalie Spooner and Rattray’s first goal of the tournament would cut Finland’s lead in half. Just seconds later the game would be leveled as someone who seemingly has a knack for clutch goals team Captain Marie-Philip Poulin while in her favorite spot at the top of the slot she would receive a pass from Claire Thompson and Poulin would wire a shot passed Kaisala evening the score at two goals each as the second period would end and these two would be deadlocked heading into what was sure to be an exciting final period of action.

The third would start right where Canada left off in the second as they were once again controlling the pace and play of the game and we would not have to wait long for the important third goal as just two minutes into the third Claire Thompson would send the puck on goal with two players crashing the Finland goal and Thompson’s shot would take a double deflection, first the puck would redirect off of Breanne Jenner and then off of Erin Ambrose for her first of this 2021 tournament giving her and team Canada a 3-2 lead. With Canada now leading and grabbing control of this contest to the Finns credit they would not give up they just kept pressing and searching for that equalizer and with seven and a half minutes played Finland would tie the game at threes and after a won faceoff Elisa Holopainen would be left all alone and her shot would beat a screened Desbiens. With the score tied at three it didn’t Canada long to regain the lead and this time it was for good as just 25 seconds after Finland scored their third goal Canada would come in and Natalie Spooner would pull off one of her signature wrap around attempts and Sarah Fillier would grab the rebound and send into the back of the net once again giving the host nation the lead and in the process becoming the youngest player to ever scoring a goal for team Canada at the Women’s World Championships as Sarah was born in the year 2000. With five minutes remaining in regulation Canada would once again find themselves playing shorthanded but Finland wasn’t happy playing 5 on 4 they decided to pull their goalie and play 6 on 4 forcing Canada to work hard and defend their one goal lead. Finland would collect a few good scoring chances, but Canada would manage to kill off the tripping minor and in the final seconds of regulation Sarah Nurse would send Breanne Jenner into the Finland zone where Jenner would score the empty net goal giving Canada a hard fought 5-3 victory.

 

It may not have been as pretty as Canada and their fans had hoped the game would be but sometimes in tournament play any win is a good win. Kaisala was named player of the game for Finland for her excellent play in goal despite her team losing tonight and Jamie Lee Rattray would receive the honours for Team Canada. The next matchup for Team Canada comes Sunday night when they square off against Team Russia who in fact will face a fresh team Canada whereas Russia will be in a back-to-back situation as the Russians open their tournament tomorrow against Switzerland who at this moment are in tough trailing the Americans 3-0 after 40 minutes.

So there you have it with no Leaf news to really discuss other than proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test being mandatory to enter any MLSE facility this year and Auston Matthews once again gracing the cover of EA Sports NHL 22 Leafs news has been few and far between so I decided to cover the Women’s World Championship to provide some content for everyone to read until Leafs Preseason starts up.