Scott Stinson: Canadian women survive another late scare for overtime win over Sweden
Sweden’s third shot of the final period came with 9.2 seconds left. And it went in. Tie game. Shots on goal to that point 48-14, Canada
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BRAMPTON, Ont. — With about 48 minutes gone in Canada’s quarterfinal game against Sweden at the IIHF Women’s World Championship, the home team was having a nice skate. They had a two-goal lead, and the Swedes had managed just seven shots on net.
At their most effective, this Canadian team smothers opponents, pressing on the attack while also chasing down pucks while out of possession. No one outside the United States has been able to keep up for very long.
But then, Sweden’s Lina Ljungblom took a pass in the slot while on the power play and fired the puck past Emerance Maschmeyer in the Canadian net. From casual dominance to a narrow lead in a blink. Such is hockey at times.
It set up an intriguing third period. Would Canada start the smothering again? Or did the Swedes have another goal in them to set up a possible shock upset?
Yes. And also yes. Sweden didn’t get their first shot on goal of the final period until almost halfway through it. It took another nine minutes to get their second. Canada had 16 shots on goal over the same stretch. Sweden’s third shot came with 9.2 seconds left. And it went in. With the goalie pulled and after a high shot came back off the glass, teenager Hilda Svensson batted the puck past Maschmeyer. Tie game. Shots on goal to that point 48-14, Canada.
This is why you have to capitalize on your chances, kids. It’s the second consecutive game in which Canada gave up a lead in the dying seconds, following two American goals in the final 39 seconds on Monday night. They won that one in a shootout.
In the end, the late mistake on Thursday didn’t matter. A three-on-three overtime followed, in which Canada looked like they were skating line rushes, swarming Emma Soderberg in the Swedish net and generating chance after chance. Sarah Nurse ended things in the fifth minute with a floating wrist shot over the goaltender’s shoulder.
“That was crazy,” Nurse, 28, said of her second goal of the game. “I think we all took a deep breath going into overtime. We wanted to come out and make a statement and win the game.”
The statement was certainly made. Nurse said she almost jumped over the boards three times when the puck was on a Canadian stick and the game looked like it was about to be over, only to see a shot just miss or Soderberg make another of her 54 saves.
“It felt like it was going to come for us,” Nurse said.
Marie-Philip Poulin, the Canadian captain who is no stranger to big goals, said that her team is comfortable playing with just the three skaters, something they have worked on a lot since the format was introduced to international competition five years ago.
“It’s a game of possession in that moment,” she said. “Obviously, we’re very happy with the way we played three-on-three, but we don’t want that to happen again.”
Through this tournament’s preliminary round, the defending champions had proven a couple of things. First, they remained quite similar to the team that had dominated the 2022 calendar, winning their first three games comfortably and then controlling most of the fourth against the United States before a last-second collapse that forced overtime and an eventual shootout win. None of that was surprising, as this is a familiar Team Canada, captained by Poulin and with a pile of returning stars like Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse and Sarah Fillier.
But Canada had also displayed one weak spot: a tendency toward slow starts. Their first periods weren’t great, and after every win various players and coach Troy Ryan discussed the need to get their legs under them sooner, or play their game earlier, or assorted other clichés. The problem was particularly notable against the Americans, who had a dominant first 10 minutes and a one-goal lead before the Canadians started dictating more of the play.
Team Canada hadn’t quite been the force that it had been at the Beijing Olympics — where it beat the non-U.S. opponents by a combined 29-3 in the prelims — but it was deep and talented and would be a tough out. This is, of course, generally the case with this team. If Canada doesn’t roll through the opening stages of an international tournament, there is talk of the need for hockey summits if not royal commissions of inquiry.
The home team didn’t struggle through the opening stages of their quarter-final, unless you count the first shift or two, when the Swedes managed a pair of shots. From there, Canada was all over the ice, spending long periods in the Sweden end and turning their opponents over when the puck came back out to begin a new attack. That relentlessness has been a trait of this group at its best; it came early on Thursday night. One of those rushes brought Canada’s first goal just past eight minutes in, with Blayre Turnbull darting into open ice down the right wing, cutting across the face of goal and slipping a backhand shot past Soderberg. Nurse would add to the lead in the second period, forcing a turnover on the wall, walking in and putting a wrist shot above Soderberg’s shoulder. At that point, with Sweden having created so little, it seemed like job done.
It was not.
The Canadians will play the winner of the Switzerland-Japan quarterfinal, the late game on Thursday, in the semifinals on Saturday. They will again be heavy favourites. And they will again be trying to put the game away sooner.
• Email: sstinson@postmedia.com | Twitter: scott_stinson
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