Canada eases past Switzerland to remain perfect at Women’s Worlds

Canada shut out its Swiss opponent 3-0 to improve to 2-0 and secure their 101st win on the international stage.

Emma Maltais and Sarah Nurse scored for Canada while Sarah Fillier scored into an empty net to get past Switzerland with ease at the Women’s World Hockey Championship in Utica.

Emerance Mashmeyer who got the start for Canada made 17 saves in the win and showed that she and Anne Renee Desbiens can be a dangerous one-two punch in goal.

Switzerland was shutout for the second consecutive game after losing 4-0 to the USA in their opening game and give full credit to Andrea Braendli the Swiss goalkeeper who made 43 saves in the loss after making 51 saves in the game against the Americans.

Marie Phillipe Poulin’s ice time was limited once again after only playing 12 minutes against Finland she only played two minutes more against Switzerland.

Canada’s head coach Troy Ryan wasn’t too pleased with his team’s performance against the Finns but said the game against the Swiss was a much better improvement.

” I thought we had a not-your-typical pre-game meeting before we got to the rink”, Ryan mentioned. ” It was more just going over the stuff that we didn’t do very well. Early in an event like this, I think you can get away with doing that. I don’t think later in the event you can do it too much.”

” We cleaned some things up and I thought even from the start you could just see a different group focus.”

It didn’t take long for Canada to open the scoring as one minute and nine seconds into the game Natalie Spooner drove to the net and Emma Maltais was able to score on the rebound.

” I felt we didn’t have the depth when we put them together,” Ryan answered. ” I put Maltais with Turnbull because they are relentless together, but any time we need some offense we generally put Maltais up there because she’s doing such a good job on breakouts and protecting the puck.”

Six minutes later Sarah Nurse doubled Canada’s lead as she was able to steal the puck off a brutal turnover and roofed a powerful shot top corner to beat Braendli.

” I think there’s that natural chemistry”, Nurse said after the game. ” I think we all play to our strengths.”

Fillier scored into an empty net with 19 seconds left on the clock in regulation and after playing a back-to-back Canada will now have a day off Saturday before facing Czechia and the USA once again in another back-to-back situation on Sunday and Monday.