Women’s Worlds Quarterfinal Recap: Canada survives Swedish scare in OT

Canada (1st Group A) 3, Sweden (3rd Group B) 2 [OT]

Sarah Nurse scored in overtime as Canada overcame a second-straight last second tying goal to win when they defeated Sweden 3-2 on Thursday night.

It was Nurse’s second goal of the game and fourth of the tournament as she sent Canada to the semi-final and finally was able to beat Swedish goaltender Emma Söderberg. Canada outshot Sweden 54-14 and 6-0 in the overtime period.

“The shift before, they wore down their players on the ice, so by the time Filly (Sarah Fillier) and I got on the ice I think they were pretty tired,” Nurse said. “When she came around the net all I thought about was that if this pass comes over to me, we’re crossing the mid-lane and we’re getting a shot off. I saw her hands kind of drop really quick and I decided to put it upstairs.”

Sweden forced overtime with a goal with nine seconds remaining. Hilda Svensson scored her fifth of the tournament and beat Emerance Maschmeyer, who got the start for Canada. Svensson is the tournament’s leading scorer with six assists to go with her five goals.

“I think we just tried to regroup,” said Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin. “Everyone took one or two seconds to take a deep breath, look around and see how lucky we are to be surrounded by each other. We knew it wasn’t over; they have a great team and a great goalie but we needed to decide how we were going to respond in overtime. We kept them in their zone, we kept possession and that’s something we take pride in – to keep possession and make sure the next group is ready to go.”

“They play with full body contact over in Sweden so that’s something we were prepared for,” Nurse said. “That’s a team that wanted to win, and every time somebody plays against Team Canada they give us their best game and that’s what we talk about in the locker room that every team will play us hard. We would have loved to get it done in regulation, but things happen in games and we’re happy to get the win in overtime.”

Canada opened the scoring with a goal from Blayre Turnbull who used her speed to get around the Swedish defence and beat Söderberg. Nurse then doubled the lead in the second period with a power play marker.

Sweden closed the cap with a power play goal of their own before the end of the second period when Lina Ljungblom scored her tournament-leading seventh goal of the event.

After the game, Ljungblom was in tears but was as motivated as ever speaking to Swedish media.

The translation? “I think they should be fucking scared in the future!”

Thanks to Johan Rylander for the quote and Eyes on the Prize’s Patrik Bexell for the translation.

Canada will now move on to the semi-final on Saturday.

“We want to do a better job of early on in a game, doing the little things that make us difficult to play against instead of resorting to our offensive-zone play that we end up usually finishing games with,” said Canada head coach Troy Ryan. “You don’t get those opportunities unless you set your game up with chipping some pucks by pressure or mid-lane driving and doing some below goal-line offence. We have to be better at doing the little things to set up our game so we can roll into our more wide-open offence later in the game. You have to earn that, you just don’t get it from your first shift.”

Czechia (3rd Group A) 2, Finland (1st Group B) 1

The day opened with a great battle between Czechia and Finland who were fighting tooth and nail for the right to go to Group A next year and to play in the medal round.

Finland opened the scoring Viivi Vainikka scored her fifth of the tournament late in the first period.

It remained that way until the Czechs scored twice in 49 seconds in the second period. Natalie Mlynkova scored her second of the tournament on the power play and that was followed up by Katerina Mrazova who fired a long shot past Finnish goaltender Anni Keisala.

Finland outshot Czechia 18-5 in the third period to try and tie the game, but were unable to beat Blanka Skodova, who made 41 saves and was outstanding in the win.

United States (2nd Group A) 3, Germany (2nd Group B) 0

Aerin Frankel made 18 saves as the United States beat Germany 3-0 to move on to the semi-final.

It was a game that was closer than expected, mainly because of Sandra Abstreiter, who made 49 saves and was outstanding.

Amanda Kessel opened the scoring with less than a minute remaining in the first period. Germany went most of the period without getting a shot on goal, but ended the frame with two. Kessel’s goal was on the power play.

Hannah Bilka added a power play goal in the second to make it 2-0, and Abbey Murphy scored a shorthanded goal to round out the scoring.

Switzerland (4th Group A) 5, Japan (5th Group A) 1

Switzerland used five unanswered goals, including three in the second period to overcome a 1-0 deficit and beat Japan to move on to the semi-final.

Haruka Toko scored 8:17 into the game to give Japan a 1-0 lead. Before the end of the period, Lara Christen scored to make it 1-1.

The Lara Stalder show took over the game from there. Already with an assist on Christen’s goal, Stalder had an assist in Alina Müller’s go-ahead goal before scoring herself to make it 3-1. She also assisted on Rahel Enzler’s goal that made it 4-1. Her four points, and Switzerland’s four goals coming in around eight minutes of game time.

She added a fifth assist in the third period on Enzler’s second goal of the game. Müller had a three-point game, as did Enzler.

Andrea Brändli made 27 saves in the win. Japan split the game between Miyuu Masuhara, who was pulled after Switzerland’s fourth goal and Riko Kawaguchi, who made 15 saves on 16 shots.

Looking ahead

The placement round gets underway on Friday as Finland faces Germany (3:00 p.m. Eastern) and Sweden faces Japan (7:00 p.m. Eastern). The winner of each game will move on to the placement final on Sunday morning which will determine who finishes in fifth place.

The semi-finals will be on Saturday with USA-Czechia at 12:00 p.m. Eastern followed by Canada and Switzerland at 4:00 p.m.