Thanks to their victory over the Americans on Tuesday, the Canadians are enthroned at the top of the women’s hockey tournament at the Beijing Olympics after the preliminary round.

Their dominance is not only represented in the team standings for Group A with four wins in as many outings. This portion of the competition truly belonged to the Maple Leaf representatives in multiple categories.

One need only look at the goal differential to see how intractable the Canadians were against their rivals. They scored a tournament-high 33 goals while allowing the fewest goals with just five after four games.

Goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens gave the exclamation point in the team’s fourth victory as she saved an impressive 51 pucks in a 4-2 victory over the Americans. The Canadian goaltender has posted a .958 save percentage since the start of the competition.

Desbiens is not the only Canadian player to shine in this competition. Natalie Spooner is producing at breakneck speed, having two goals and nine assists in four games. She is also the top scorer in the tournament with 11 points ahead of four of her teammates. You have to go down to the sixth level to see a player from another formation on the scoreboard. It is the American Amanda Kessel who recorded six points, as did the Canadian Rebecca Johnston.

While Spooner stands out in assists, Sarah Fillier and Brianne Jenner lead the tournament in goals with five goals. It must be said that victories of 12 to 1 against Switzerland and 11 to 1 in front of Finland contributed to inflate the figures.

These statistics obviously highlight Canada after this preliminary round, but the players are well aware that the real tournament begins right now with the elimination round.

“No matter who we play against, our game plan is to have aggressive offensive pressure. I think that this year, we have done a good job in order to focus on what we can do and we will continue in this way”, mentioned Desbiens at the microphone of Radio Canada.

Canada is waiting for the team that will finish third in Group B for the quarter-final match.