TRENTINO, Italy (CIS) – The Canadian women's hockey team moved to 4-0 at the Winter Universiade tournament thanks to a convincing 9-1 win over the United States, Sunday evening. UBC's Tatiana Rafter had a goal and two assists in the victory.
The result sets up a confrontation for first place between Canada and Japan (3-1) in the final round-robin match for both teams, Monday at 10 a.m. EST (4 p.m. Trentino). The Japanese suffered their first loss of the competition earlier on Sunday, a 5-1 decision to the Russians, whom the Canadians blanked 5-0 last Thursday.
Canada, Japan, Russia (2-2) and the USA (2-2) are all qualified for the semifinals set for Dec. 18. Great Britain (1-3) and Spain (0-4) will not advance past the preliminary round.
After outscoring its first three opponents by a combined 39-0, Team Canada got off to a relatively slow start against the Americans and led 2-0 after the opening period. The CIS all-stars quickly got back to their dominating ways however as they outshot their rivals 27-6 in the next 40 minutes and were up 6-0 heading into the third frame.
"We had a little bit of a slow start in the first period – it may have been the day off and the fact the girls might be getting a little tired, as are most teams – but we rebounded," said Canadian head coach Howie Draper from the University of Alberta. "Our final two periods were as good or better than anything we've done thus far. It was nice to be able to rebound from that [the start] and finish off strong.
"Tomorrow is a big game for us against Japan. I feel our players are ready for it, ready for the challenge."
Josianne Legault from the University of Montreal paced the offence with two goals and one assist. The forward from Granby, Que., opened the scoring 7:57 into the game and made it 3-0 after 3:54 of action in the second period.
Six other players tallied three points in the contest, including Montreal teammate and Team Canada captain Kim Deschênes (0-0-3), McGill teammates Gabrielle Davidson (1-2-3) and Katia Clément-Heydra (0-0-3), as well as Alex Normore of StFX (1-2-3), Tatiana Rafter of UBC (1-2-3) and Saskatchewan graduate Cara Wooster (1-2-3).
Laurier's Laura Brooker and Manitoba rearguard Caitlin MacDonald also found the back of the net.
Davidson currently leads the tournament in scoring with a whopping 15 points (9-6-15). Wooster (6-5-11), Clément-Heydra (2-9-11), Legault (5-5-10), Normore (3-7-10) and Deschênes (1-9-10) have also reached double digits after four matches.
If there is one area of concern for the CIS squad heading into its round-robin finale, it might be the power play, which was blanked in three opportunities against the USA and has produced only one goal in 10 attempts since the start of the tournament.
For their part, the Americans took advantage of their only man advantage to break Canada's shutout streak with 7:06 left in regulation. Cassondra Catlow beat U of Montreal goaltender Élodie Rousseau-Sirois to cut the deficit to 7-1 but it was of course much too little, much too late for the Red, White and Blue.
Rousseau-Sirois made nine saves for her second win of the tourney, while Katie Vaughan turned aside 27 shots in a losing cause.
GAME NOTES: Canada, which won the inaugural FISU tournament in 2009 in China and repeated two years ago in Turkey, is now 18-0 all-time at the tourney and has outscored its opponents by a 145-11 margin overall... In their two previous games against the USA at the Universiade, both in 2011, the Canadians had prevailed 9-0 in round-robin action and 8-1 in the semifinals.
Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2013/index
Trentino 2013 website: http://www.universiadetrentino.org/en
TEAM CANADA SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times local / 6 hours ahead of EST)
Dec. 10 (20:00): Canada 21, Spain 0
Dec. 12 (16:00): Canada 5, Russia 0
Dec. 13 (12:00): Canada 13, Great Britain 0
Dec. 15 (20:00): Canada 9, USA 1
Dec. 16 (16:00): Canada vs. Japan
Dec. 18 (16:00): Semifinal #1 (3 vs. 2)
Dec. 18 (20:00): Semifinal #2 (4 vs. 1)
Dec. 19 (16:00): 5th place
Dec. 20 (16:00): Bronze
Dec. 20 (20:00): Final
SCORING SUMMARY (official boxscore: BOXSCORE)
Canada 9, USA 1
FIRST PERIOD
SCORING:
1. CAN Josianne Legault (4) (Kim Deschênes, Gabrielle Davidson), 7:37
2. CAN Tatiana Rafter (4) (Gabrielle Davidson, Kimberley Wong), 14:17
PENALTIES:
Caleigh LaBossiere (USA) hooking, 4:46;
Andrea Stewart (USA) cross-checking, 17:08.
SECOND PERIOD
SCORING:
3. CAN Josianne Legault (5) (Alex Normore, Cara Wooster), 3:54
4. CAN Amanda Parkins (5) (Tatiana Rafter, Katia Clément-Heydra), 6:25
5. CAN Laura Brooker (5) (Alex Normore, Tatiana Rafter), 18:28
6. CAN Gabrielle Davidson (9) (Josianne Legault, Kim Deschênes), 19:29
PENALTIES:
Hayley Williams (USA) hooking, 7:46.
THIRD PERIOD
SCORING:
7. CAN Cara Wooster (4) (Katia Clément-Heydra, Kim Deschênes), 9:36
8. USA Cassondra Catlow (1) (Hayley Williams, Ramey Weaver), 12:54 PP
9. CAN Alex Normore (3) (Amanda Parkins, Brittney Fouracres), 13:51
10. CAN Caitlin MacDonald (1) (Cara Wooster, Katia Clément-Heydra), 17:04
PENALTIES:
Jenna Smith (CAN) tripping, 12:46.
GOALS (by period)
CAN: 2-4-3: 9
USA: 0-0-1: 1
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
CAN: 9-12-15: 36
USA: 4-3-3: 10
POWER PLAY:
CAN: 0-3
USA: 1-1
GOALTENDERS
CAN – Élodie Rousseau-Sirois (W, 2-0, 10 shots, 9 saves, 1 GA, 60:00)
USA – Katie Vaughan (L, 1-1, 36 shots, 27 saves, 9 GA, 60:00)
REFEREE: Katarina Timglas (SWE)
LINESMEN: Anna Ida Linnea Hammar (SWE), Jackie Spresser (USA)
ATTENDANCE: -
START: 20:00
END: 21:50
LENGTH: 1:50
PRELIMINARY ROUND STANDINGS (each team plays 5 games)
GP W OTW OTL L GF GA PTS
1. Canada 4 4 0 0 0 48 1 12
2. Japan 4 3 0 0 1 19 6 9
3. USA 4 2 0 0 2 7 14 6
4. Russia 4 2 0 0 2 22 11 6
5. Great Britain 4 0 1 0 3 4 26 2
6. Spain 4 0 0 1 3 2 44 1
Scoring system:
3 points for a win in regulation
2 points for a win in overtime or shootout
1 point for a loss in overtime or shootout
Legend: W (win), OTW (OT win), OTL (OT loss), L (loss)
About the Winter Universiade
The Winter Universiade is a biennial international multi-sport event open to competitors who are at least 17 and less than 28 years of age as of January 1 in the year of the Games. Participants must be full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event. The competition program of the Trentino Universiade includes alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey (women & men), nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding and speed skating (short & long track).
