Canada’s women’s hockey team captured their second win in as many games at the Winter Olympics on Monday.
The Canadians were able to get by Team Finland by a score of 3 to 0. It was an interesting game, as on one hand the score was not reflective of the Canadian team’s domination. And for much of the game, a Canadian win was far from a sure thing.
Canada was clearly the better team overall, playing much of the game in the offensive zone and tripling Finland’s shot total. The shots were 42-14.
But every shot Canada threw towards the net was rejected by Finnish goaltender Noora Raty, who was outstanding in the loss, making 39 saves.
Canada wasn’t able to solve Raty until the 9:27 mark of the third period, when Meghan Agosta-Marciano ripped a slapshot high glove side. Jayna Hefford and Rebecca Johnston added late goals for the 3-0 final.
Despite only mustering 14 shots, Finland forced Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados to make some great saves of her own in the first two periods to keep the game scoreless.
Finland is ranked third in the world but is still considered more of a second-tier team, with the Canadian and American teams in a league of their own. The U.S.A. beat Finland 3-1 on Saturday.
Comparing the stats of the top two teams’ games against Finland, they are almost identical – as is expected. Canada and the U.S.A. are great rivals and very close in skill.
One notable difference was that Canada took five penalties against the Fins, where as the Americans only took two.
If Canada gets into penalty trouble against the U.S.A., a team much faster and more skilled than the Fins, they could have a problem.
The next game for Canada’s women is against the U.S.A. on Wednesday at 4:30 pm local time (7:30 a.m. ET / 4:30 a.m. PT).
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