WOMEN’S WORLDS PREVIEW: CANADA VS. SWEDEN – September 1, 2022

Thursday, September 1 | 2 p.m. ET | Herning, Denmark | Quarterfinal Round

GAME NOTES: CANADA VS. SWEDEN (SEPTEMBER 1)

TV: TSN | Stream: TSN Direct

After finishing second in Group A in the preliminary round, Canada’s National Women’s Team gets the playoffs started with a quarterfinal matchup against Sweden at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship.

LAST GAME

Canada dropped its prelim finale, falling 5-2 to the United States on Tuesday. Sarah Fillier continued her offensive streak, burying a rebound to open the scoring and tie for the tournament goal-scoring lead, before Ella Shelton punched in a goal of her own on the power play to give the Canadians a two-goal advantage after 20 minutes. But the offence dried up from there, and the U.S. scored five unanswered goals to take top spot in the group.

Sweden is coming off a 3-0 loss to undefeated Czechia on Tuesday to close out its preliminary schedule. Emma Soderberg stopped 21 out of 23 shots, but the Swedes couldn’t solve Klara Peslarova on 27 tries and suffered their first loss.

LAST MEETING

The Canadians and Swedes last met in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, with Canada earning the 11-0 win. Brianne Jenner and Sarah Fillier each recorded hat tricks, while Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Nurse tallied four assists each. Emerance Maschmeyer earned the shutout, turning away the 11 shots she faced.

WHAT TO WATCH

Maschmeyer and Ann-Renée Desbiens both got two starts in the prelims, leaving Troy Ryan and his coaching staff with a decision to make for the playoff round. Desbiens has the better numbers, with a 1.00 goals-against average and .920 save percentage (Maschmeyer is at 2.02 and .892), but the Albertan looked good against the U.S., preserving the Canadian lead early and suffering a little bit of bad puck luck.

For Sweden, Hanna Olsson has been the breakout star, recording four goals (tied with Fillier and Czech sniper Natalia Mlynkova for the tournament lead) and five points in the prelims. The 23-year-old had a hat trick in an opening win over Denmark and showed she can finish under pressure, scoring shootout winners in victories over Germany and Hungary.

A LOOK BACK

Canada is a perfect 9-0 against Sweden at women’s worlds, outscoring the Swedes 74-6. The last time these two teams met at the worlds was in 2009, when eventual tournament MVP Carla MacLeod tallied a goal and four assists in a 7-0 win.

MacLeod’s five-point performance is one of five such efforts over the years; Jennifer Botterill holds the single-game high with six (a hat trick and three assists) at the 2000 4 Nations Cup, while Meghan Agosta (3-2—5) and Hayley Wickenheiser (1-4—5) both had five in a 13-1 win at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

All-time record: Canada leads 77-2-1
Canada goals: 503
Sweden goals: 68

TEAM COMPARISON – PRELIMINARY ROUND

Source: Hockey Canada

by Martin Merk | 30 AUG 2022

The Denmark-Germany game on Tuesday night in Frederikshavn will determine the last quarter-finalist as well as the relegated team.

Seven out of eight quarter-final teams are known before entering the last day of the preliminary round at the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Denmark.

The tournament is played with vertically aligned groups, meaning that the top-five seeded teams play in Group A and move on to the quarter-finals, while the five teams below play in Group B with the best three teams advancing as teams seeded sixth, seventh and eighth.

In Group A in Herning, Canada and the United States will battle for first and second place on Tuesday night.

Earlier Finland and Switzerland will go head-to-head to determine third and fourth place in the group. Japan is winless and will finish the group in fifth place and play the fourth-ranked team in the quarter-finals (Switzerland or Finland).

In Group B in Frederikshavn, Czechia and Sweden gained enough points to qualify for the final round before they will meet on Tuesday afternoon. Czechia needs a win against Sweden or at least a tie after 60 minutes to claim first place in the group.

The first-ranked team will be seeded sixth and play the third-ranked team of Group A (Finland or Switzerland). The second-ranked team of Group B will be seeded seventh and meet the second-ranked team of Group A (Canada or USA). To move up to first place, Sweden needs to beat Czechia in regulation time.

While the preliminary round is over for Hungary with four points from as many games, host Denmark has its fate in its own hands. They just need a point against Germany. A win will make them third same as a tie after regulation time. In that case the Danes would play the Group A winner (USA or Canada) on Thursday night in Herning. If Denmark loses in regulation time, they will drop to last place and be relegated.

Germany is currently last and can’t make the quarter-finals anymore but with a regulation-time win in the neighbouring rivalry against Denmark they can avoid relegation and send the Danes down. The Germans may have almost all the arena against them, but just almost. A win in regulation time against Denmark would also keep Hungary in third place. This scenario is Hungary’s only hope to make the quarter-finals while the Magyars are safe from relegation. France won the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group A and will be the promoted team.

Who will play where on Thursday? The quarter-final assignments will be made on Tuesday night after the last game and be published on IIHF.com.

The quarter-final winners will advance to the semi-finals (3 Sep.) and the medal games (4 Sep.). On the same days the quarter-final losers will play placement games to determine the fifth-place team of the championship that will also earn the Group A affiliation for the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship next spring in Canada.

Source: iihf.com