BEIJING, China – Sarah Nurse was lamenting that she couldn’t find an accessible Tim Hortons restaurant in Beijing.

It’s not that Canada’s Olympic Women’s Hockey Team forward wanted a cup of coffee. She simply felt teammate Ann-Renée Desbiens deserved a little boost after stopping 51 shots on Tuesday in a 4-2 win over the United States.

“There’s no doubt we’re going to have to give him a cup of coffee in the morning. If only there was a Tim Hortons to take care of her,” said Nurse, after Canada completed the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0 record, atop Group A.

“She played such an important role in this victory and she wants to be a key element of the team. »

It was another classic showdown between the two powerhouses of women’s hockey, who will almost certainly meet again in the gold medal matchup on February 17.

Since the debut of women’s hockey at the Olympic Games in 1998 in Nagano, Canada has won four gold medals in six attempts. The United States collected the other two.

Brianne Jenner led Canada’s offense with two goals and captain Marie-Philip Poulin converted a penalty shot. Jamie Lee Rattray completed.

Dani Cameranesi and Alex Carpenter fought back for the United States, which finished the preliminary round with a 3-1 record, in second place.

In the quarter-finals, the Canadians will face Sweden, who finished third in Group B.

But beyond the fact that his players will benefit from a slightly more favorable duel, head coach Troy Ryan attached very relative importance to finishing at the top of the Group A standings.

“I will always prefer to be in this position, but the past reminds us that it does not always have a great meaning,” he remarked.

“We are pleased that we continue to gain confidence. We also appreciate the fact that we won without having played our best match. »

This entertaining duel was the highlight of a day when the Canadians failed to reach the podium. But some have come close.

In the women’s freestyle ski jump event, young Canadian Megan Oldham pulled off two very fine maneuvers and finished just off the podium.

Oldham, 20, amassed 178.00 points, 5.50 behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, the bronze medalist, and 10.25 behind China’s Eileen Gu, the event’s champion.

17-year-old Quebecer Olivia Asselin also gave it her all, at her first Olympic Games. Asselin performed well on her third and final jump and finished eighth with a total of 147.50 points.

Canada has also shown that the future is bright in men’s alpine skiing.

After offering a superb downhill performance the day before, James Crawford finished sixth in the super-G.

Aged just 24, Crawford was in good position to make it onto the podium, but a slight error midway through his descent cost him a few precious hundredths of a second.

Crawford posted a time of 1:20.79, making him the fastest Canadian in the event. He finished 85 hundredths of a second behind Austria’s Matthias Mayer, the gold medal winner.

Crawford admitted he would have liked to win a medal in the event he considers his specialty.

“It’s a bit disappointing, but I’m still young and I haven’t had a World Cup podium or anything like that yet. I haven’t reached that level yet. I was hoping for it to happen here, but I guess it just wasn’t the time to do it yet. »

In long track speed skating, Alberta’s Connor Howe flirted with the podium in the 1,500 metres. Third after 700 meters, he however slowed his pace afterwards to finish in fifth place thanks to a time of 1:44.86, which nevertheless constitutes his best result in competition over the distance. He missed the podium by 62 hundredths of a second.

In the men’s 20 km biathlon, Scott Gow also placed fifth.

In figure skating, the day after arriving in Beijing, Keegan Messing put in a solid short program and earned a score of 93.24, good for ninth place.