Canada reaches women’s hockey worlds final beating Finland
In Malmö, Marie-Philip Poulin’s knack for game winning goals helped lift Canada to a 3-0 semifinal win over Finland, and a 16th-straight trip to the gold medal game at Women’s World Hockey Championship.
Natalie Spooner added two third period markers to bring her tournament goal total to four, all of them registered against Finland. The Canadians fired 43 shots on Meeri Raisanen in the Finnish net, while La Malbaie, Quebec’s Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped all 19 opposing shots to earn the shutout.
Poulin, wearing the ‘C’ this tournament, opened the scoring at 6:32 of the first period with Canada on the power play. The second would remain scoreless, and despite being out shot, the Finns were resilient. It wasn’t until 25 seconds into the third period that Raisanen would mishandle the puck behind the net, allowing Spooner a blue paint tap-in. The 24-year-old would earn her second goal of the period with full-speed flash, breaking down the right wing and eluding a defender before going backhand shelf of Raisanen. Spooner now leads the team with seven tournament points, (4 goals, 3 assists).
Photo: IIHF
Canada moves on to play the United States on Saturday. The Americans hammered Russia 13-1 in their semifinal, earlier on Friday. It will be the 16th-straight time Canada and the United States will meet in the gold medal game at worlds. The Americans were triumphant in 2013, with no tournament held in 2014 due to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games where Canada took home the gold medal.
