Women’s Worlds: Canada snags semifinal spot after surviving Swedish scare

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Women’s Worlds: Canada snags semifinal spot after surviving Swedish scare
Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The knockout stage at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship is very much underway, with Thursday’s quarterfinals and Friday’s placement games providing plenty of drama to lead into what should be a thrilling weekend.

Team Canada, in search of a third consecutive title, put everything on the line against Team Sweden on Thursday evening. It took more than the regulation 60 minutes to determine a winner, with Canada controlling the shots 48–14 through three periods of play.

Blayre Turnbull and Sarah Nurse put the hosts up 2–0 by the 13:01 mark of the middle period, but Sweden — which, if you’ll recall, only barely made it to the playoffs out of Group B — refused to go gently into the night.

After Lina Ljungblom brought the Swedes within one late in the second period, Hilda Svensson made it 2–2 with 9.2 seconds left in regulation time to immediately silence the crowd at CAA Centre in Brampton.

Canada found its legs again in overtime, firing six shots on goaltender Emma Soderberg while preventing the Swedes from testing Emerance Maschmeyer even once in the sudden-victory period.

Of course, it just had to be Nurse who finally sealed the deal in favour of Team Canada. The NHL 23 cover athlete received Sarah Fillier’s feed at the top of the right circle before unloading a heavy wrister past Soderberg’s glove to send Canada to the semifinals.

In the end, Canada controlled the shots by a 54–14 margin. To her immense credit, Soderberg made 51 saves and was quite rightly named the Swedes’ player of the game — although you can bet she’d trade it in for a win.

Team Canada will return to action on Saturday to take on Team Switzerland in the semifinals.

Soderberg ended up getting that win just a day later, stopping all 23 shots she faced to backstop Sweden to a 1–0 win over Team Japan in a placement game on Friday.

Josefin Bouveng scored the lone goal for Sweden, which punched its ticket to the fifth-place game against Team Finland on Sunday. The winner of that contest will lock down a spot in Group A at the 2024 tournament.

Once again, Soderberg was named Team Sweden’s player of the game in recognition of her terrific efforts. The 25-year-old goaltender now has a 2–2–0 record with a sparkling .922 save percentage through four games at the 2023 Worlds.

Soderberg is coming off a spectacular final season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, during which she posted a 21–10–2 record and a .938 save percentage in 33 games. You can bet she’ll be heavily pursued by pro teams this summer.

Quick hits

  • Team USA didn’t exactly defeat Team Germany in blowout fashion in their quarterfinal matchup on Thursday, but it also wasn’t particularly close. The Americans controlled the shots 52–18 and led most of the way, with Amanda Kessel opening the scoring with the eventual game-winning goal at the 19:05 mark of the first period. Team USA is heavily favored in its upcoming semifinal clash with Switzerland, and, if all plays out as expected, we’ll probably see another Canada/USA gold medal matchup on Sunday. But there’s a reason why they play the games …
  • Even without Klara Peslarova at this year’s tournament, the Czechs haven’t had too much trouble keeping the puck out of their net. They can thank Blanka Skodova for that. The 25-year-old goaltender kept things respectable against both Team USA and Team Canada in the group stage and followed it up with a masterful 41-save effort against the Finns in Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup. After Viivi Vainikka opened the scoring for Finland in the first period, Skodova shut the door the rest of the way to allow Czechia to get back into the game. They did just that, scoring twice on just six shots in the second period before surviving a Finnish onslaught in the third. Next up, can Czechia avenge its recent 6–2 loss to Team USA with a trip to the gold medal game on the line?
  • How about those Swiss? It’ll be a lot of fun to watch Lara Stalder and Alina Muller go up against Team Canada on Saturday after they helped Team Switzerland topple Team Japan by a 5–1 score in the quarterfinals. Stalder factored in on all five Swiss goals in the commanding victory, which saw Haruka Toko open the scoring early for Japan before Switzerland responded with five unanswered markers. Up-and-coming Swiss forward Rahel Enzler put forth a two-goal effort of her own in the big win.

Thursday’s results

Team Czechia 2, Team Finland 1

Team USA 3, Team Germany 0

Team Canada 3, Team Sweden 2 (OT)

Team Switzerland 5, Team Japan 1

Friday’s results

Team Finland 8, Team Germany 2

Team Japan 0, Team Sweden 1

Saturday’s games

Team USA vs. Team Czechia — 12:00 p.m. ET

Team Canada vs. Team Switzerland — 4:00 p.m. ET

All games at CAA Centre in Brampton, Ont.

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