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We expected an uneven duel in the quarter-finals for the Canadians against Sweden at the Olympic women’s hockey tournament and that’s exactly what happened.
Canada made short work of the Swedes with an 11-0 win to reach the semi-finals without a hitch. Brianne Jenner and Sarah Fillier each had a hat trick while Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin had four assists.
The Canadians stormed into Swedish territory early in the game. The big trio of the team was the one who opened the scoring. Jenner completed a nice rally with Nurse and Poulin by slipping the disc under the goalie’s pad.
Emerance Maschmeyer was sent in front of the Canadian goal for this meeting. She showed up on the penalty kill with a superb save at the expense of Felizia Wikner-Zienkiewicz. Maschmeyer was perfect throughout the game fending off all 11 shots from the Swedes. Emma Soderberg made a superb move afterwards to deprive Jenner of her second goal of the match.
Perfect until this stage of the tournament, the Swedes allowed a first shorthanded goal when Fillier beat the speed goalkeeper. Fillier scored again only 36 seconds later. Jamie Lee Rattray had the nice presence of mind to feign the throw to give it to her teammate and Fillier only had to redirect it into the back of the net.
On another powerplay before the end of the first period, Rattray this time decided to take the shot and she rattled the strings for her team’s fourth goal. Sweden didn’t learn from their mistakes when they took another penalty early in the second period. This time, Nathalie Spooner hit the target for her 12th point of the competition.
Poulin showed all his vision on the ice afterwards. She made a wonderful cross pass to Erin Ambrose who got the better of the keeper with a shot to the top. Ambrose then took her rival on the wrong foot when her throw-in behind the net joined Blayre Turnbull who only had to complete for a seventh goal. Poulin picked up his fourth assist of the game moments later with Jenner’s second goal.
Emily Clark scored Canada’s fourth goal on the power play to make it 9-0 before the 30th minute mark of the game. Jenner and Fillier completed their hat tricks in turn in the third period.
The Maple Leaf representatives had dominated the preliminary round with four victories, including a 4-2 win over the Americans to close this portion of the competition. Sweden won twice, including one in extra time, in the group stage to finish third in Group B.
The Canadians made sure the match wasn’t as hotly contested as the Americans had earlier. USA struggled to beat Czechia 4-1 to reach the semi-finals. Finland will face Japan and the Russian Olympic Committee will face Switzerland for the last two spots in the semi-finals.
Canada is hoping to return to Olympic gold after finishing with silver in PyeongChang in 2018.
