GAME STATS | LIVE BLOG

BRAMPTON, Ont. – Canada’s National Women’s Team booked its spot in the gold medal game at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship following a 5-1 semifinal win over Switzerland on Saturday night at the CAA Centre.

• Sarah Fillier (Georgetown, Ont./Princeton University, ECAC) led the way for Canada with a hat trick, giving her a tournament-leading seven goals.
• Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, Ont./PWHPA) and Rebecca Johnston (Sudbury, Ont./PWHPA) also scored.
• Natalie Spooner (Scarborough, Ont./PWHPA) contributed three assists.
• Erin Ambrose (Keswick, Ont./PWHPA), Jaime Bourbonnais (Mississauga, Ont./PWHPA), Emma Maltais (Burlington, Ont./Ohio State University, WCHA), Sarah Nurse (Hamilton, Ont./PWHPA), Marie-Philip Poulin (Beauceville, Que./PWHPA) and Claire Thompson (Toronto, Ont./PWHPA) added an assist each.
• Ann-Renée Desbiens (Clermont, Que./PWHPA) stopped eight of nine shots.
• Canada outshot Switzerland 59-9.

Following the game, Poulin, Renata Fast (Burlington, Ont./PWHPA) and Blayre Turnbull (Stellarton, N.S./PWHPA) were named Canada’s top three players of the tournament.

Next Game:

Canada vs. United States (gold medal game) – Sunday, April 16, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

Quotes:

“I think we were pretty happy with our start. We knew eventually we were going to wear them down and something was going to go in. It was about sticking to our plan and not getting individual, and that’s what we did. Overall, we’re also super happy with how everyone played, everyone up and down the lineup got in, which was nice especially as we have back-to-back games and the opportunity to play for a gold medal.”

• Fillier on a total team effort

“I thought tonight we didn’t give them much offensively and I thought we as a team were better offensively. We attacked the net more, mixed it with both high offence and low offence and scored a power-play goal. We’re excited to be in the situation and have the opportunity to play for a gold medal, but we’re not looking ahead. We still have to break down tonight’s game and see what we can learn, but we still have little improvements to make as a group and hopefully between tonight and tomorrow we can do that.”

• Head coach Troy Ryan (Spryfield, N.S.) on his team peaking at the right time

“I think when you play really good goaltenders, it makes you a better goal scorer. It really does start from our group in the sense that with Ann-Renee, Emerance and Soupy (Kristen Campbell), those are some of the best goaltenders in the world. The fact that we can practice against them really enables us to be able to put what we practice into games, so when you can get 40 or 50 shots on goal a couple are going to end up in the back of the net.”

• Nurse on the team’s 113 shots on goal the last two games

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Women’s Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow through social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.