Switzerland National Women’s Hockey Team

Finland defeated Switzerland, 4-0, tonight at Wukesong Sports Centre to win its fourth Olympic bronze medal. They scored at even strength, short-handed, and two on the power play, and were masterful at shutting down the top Swiss trio all game long.

And they won in a manner similar to Canada’s men at last year’s World Championship–taking a medal after losing the first three games of the tournament. Just as special, coach Juuso Toivala arrived in Beijing as an assistant coach but had to take over after Pasi Mustonen was forced home to deal with a family emergency. Toivola coached the 2011 Finnish U18 women’s team to bronze and now joins a small group of coaches to win women’s medals at two events.

It was the first ever meeting between the teams for bronze, although previously the Finns had finished third three times (1998, 2010, 2018) and Switzerland once (2014).

For Finland, the win means Jenni Hiirikoski and Michelle Karvinen are now the most decorated European women at the Olympics in hockey, both having won three medals.

Anni Keisala stopped only 15 shots for the shutout while Andrea Braendli was sensational in the Swiss net, facing 47 shots.

While the Finns rolled over four lines and produced a balanced attack, the Swiss had only one line to rely on–Alina Muller-Lara Stalder-Phoebe Stanz. In fact, that line accounted for 10 of the team’s 13 goals in Beijing, and coach Colin Muller played Alina Muller and Stalder as much as he could. It just wasn’t enough, and the Finns were letter perfect inside their own blue line.

It was clear from the outset this would be a closely-fought game, and in the early going the Swiss looked to be the better of the teams. They had more of the puck and territory, but they also couldn’t generate a clear scoring chance. When they got the first power play thanks to a Tanja Niskanen interference penalty on goalie Braendli, they did little, and Finland’s PK did a masterful job.

The game’s first goal came off the rush on a play that hardly looked dangerous. Elisa Holopainen carried the puck into the Swiss end and set up Noora Tulus for a shot. Braendli made the save but went down with a defender, and Viivi Vainikka knocked in the loose puck at 11:36.

The Finns then had a power play of their own which proved ineffective, but Switzerland couldn’t penetrate the Finnish end. Suomi took control of the game in the second, and it was only the superb goaltending of Braendli that kept this a one-goal game. Early on she stopped a Sanni Rantala point shot and then stoned Nelli Laitinen on the rebound. She made great saves on Holopainen and Vainikka, and when Sanni Hakala tried to jam the puck in, Braendli stood her ground. Vainikka and Laitinen then worked a two-on-one beautifully, but again the goalie was there to stop the Laitinen shot.

All the while the Swiss couldn’t muster any offence. Colin Muller double-shifted Muller and Stalder, giving them different linemates, but they couldn’t get near Keisala’s net. And then in a flash, the Swiss had their best chance of the game. The puck bounced over the stick of Minnamari Tuominen at the Switzerland blue line, and Lena-Marie Lutz skated the length of the ice on a clear break. She didn’t get her shot high enough, though, and Keisala got her glove out to make the critical save.

Shots through two periods favoured Finland by a whopping 34-9 margin, but it was still just a 1-0 game. Early in the third, however, they doubled their lead with a key short-handed goal. A penalty for too many skaters against the Finns gave the Siwss just the chance they needed to get back in the game, but it was Finland that scored.

Sinja Leeman lost the puck at the Finland blue line and Susanna Tapani took the puck up ice on a two-on-one with Petra Nieminen, only Nicole Vallario back. When Vallario slid to take away the pass across, Tapani wired a shot over Braendli’s shoulder at 3:24, her sixth goal of the Olympics. That was the dagger to the Swiss heart.

Eight years ago, the Swiss overcame a two-goal deficit in the third against Sweden to win bronze. Not so this year. Laitinen added a third goal at 14:24 on a power play, her big blast beating Braendli over the glove and putting the game out of reach.

Michelle Karvinen closed out the scoring with another power-play goal with only 56.6 seconds remaining.

Source: iihf.com

There was never any doubt. Canada scored five first-period goals and kept on rolling in a 10-3 semi-final rout of Switzerland. The reigning World Champions outshot the Swiss 61-13. Canada faces the winner of the U.S.-Finland semi-final in Thursday’s gold medal game.

Canada has reached all seven Olympic finals since the inaugural 1998 women’s tournament in Nagano. The Canadians won four straight Olympic gold medals from 2002 to 2014. They lost the 2018 final to the U.S. in a 3-2 shootout heartbreaker and are clearly ravenous to regain their title.

Coach Troy Ryan’s team kept up its balanced attack. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin stepped up with two goals and Sarah Nurse totalled four assists. Thompson also starred with a goal and two assists. Her D-partner Erin Ambrose added a goal and an assist, as did assistant captain Blayre Turnbull.

Jamie Lee Rattray, Renata Fast, Emma Maltais, and Brianne Jenner scored a goal apiece, while Rebecca Johnston had three helpers.

This semi-final impacted the record books. Nurse now leads the Olympics with 16 points (4+12=16), two ahead of Poulin (4+10=14). Nurse also tied Hayley Wickenheiser’s single-tournament assists record (12) from 2006. And Thompson’s Olympic scoring record for defenders stands at 12 points.

Jenner tied the single-tournament record of nine goals set in 2010 by Canada’s Meghan Agosta and Switzerland’s Stefanie Marty. Wickenheiser’s points record (17) from 2006 could fall in the final.

Swiss captain Lara Stalder scored twice and added an assist. Alina Muller had a goal and a helper. It’s the first time Switzerland has ever gotten more than one goal against Canada in Olympic or Women’s Worlds play.

The Swiss will take on the U.S.-Finland loser in Wednesday’s bronze medal game.

Canada’s Melodie Daoust, the MVP of the 2018 Olympics and 2021 Women’s Worlds, made her long-awaited return to the lineup. Daoust played just 6:53 in the opening 12-1 romp over Switzerland before getting injured on an illegal hit from Sarah Forster. Here, she slotted back in between Spooner and Sarah Fillier.

No non-North American team has ever gone further than Sweden’s surprising 2006 silver medal, and advancing just wasn’t in the cards for Switzerland. The Canadians dominated as expected, entering this game with the tournament’s top seven scorers after demolishing Sweden 11-0 in the quarter-finals.

Swiss starting goalie Andrea Braendli faced a slew of high danger scoring chances early on. Thompson’s lightning wrister ricocheted in off her blocker-side post to open the scoring at 7:16. Thompson, an Olympic rookie and former Princeton captain, had her third goal of these Olympics, and the effervescent Canadian bench was buzzing.

Rattray made it 2-0 at 8:28, going to the net picking up a deflection off a Swiss skate, and roofing it home.

It was 3-0 just 36 seconds later. Thompson dipsy-doodled past Swiss forward Noemi Rhyner and sent a slick pass through Nadine Hofstetter’s skates to Turnbull, who backhanded the puck into the gaping cage.

Swiss coach Colin Muller called his timeout to try to halt Canada’s momentum, but the Canadians still scored again 17 seconds later. Nurse fired a shot from the half wall that a pinching Fast tipped home right in front.

Muller tried changing his goalie, inserting Saskia Maurer after Braendli had allowed four goals on 18 shots. Yet the onslaught continued. Ambrose scored Canada’s fifth goal through traffic at 10:40, with Daoust registering her first point of these Olympics with the assist.

On a late first-period Swiss power play, Maurer made a fantastic glove grab on Fast’s shorthanded attempt off the rush. The Swiss finally got something to cheer about when Stalder zipped a high shot from the left faceoff circle to spoil Canadian netminder Ann-Renee Desbien’s shutout bid at 18:37.

In the second period, the Canadians besiged Maurer’s net early, but she held her ground. Stalder found Muller rushing to the net and she beat Desbiens high to the stick side to cut the deficit to 5-2 at 4:59.

Canada promptly killed the faint dream of a Swiss comeback. At 7:52, Poulin one-timed home Nurse’s set-up from the top of the faceoff circle. Just 11 seconds later, Johnston circled the Swiss net and located Clark out front for a 7-2 lead.

Showing no quit, the Swiss made it 7-3 when Stalder capitalized on a Canadian defensive zone turnover and popped it through Desbiens’ pads at 9:44. It marked the first time Canada has allowed more than two goals in Beijing.

On Poulin’s second goal, the Canadian superstar stripped blueliner Nicole Vallario of the puck in the neutral zone, cut in from the left stickhandling, and elevated a backhand over Maurer at 13:27.

At 3:13 of the third period, Maltais hopped up and down with old-school Mike Foligno-like glee after notching her first Olympic goal. Jenner blew a slap shot off the rush paset Maura for her record-tying goal at 18:11 to round out the scoring at 10-3.

Canada has now scored 54 goals in six games, surpassing the Olympic peak (48 in five games) set in Vancouver in 2010.

Realistically, the Swiss only had so much left in their gas tank after their dramatic 4-2 quarter-final win over the ROC team, keyed by Muller’s two late goals. Muller, 23, also led the 2018 Olympics with seven goals and 10 points and was named Best Forward and an all-star.

Right now, it’s hard to believe Canada slumped to an IIHF Women’s World Championship bronze medal for the first time in history in 2019. The Canadians have been even more spectacular in Beijing than they were en route to their first Women’s Worlds gold medal in nine years in Calgary in 2021.

The Americans and Finns both pose different challenges as potential gold-medal opponents. The U.S., of course, is Canada’s greatest rival and nemesis, and every showdown is a must-see. Finland, however, beat Canada 4-2 in the 2019 semi-final, making it the only European nation ever to register an IIHF playoff win over the motherland of hockey.

Meanwhile, the Swiss will be overjoyed if they can achieve their second Olympic bronze medal. In 2014, they made history with a 4-3 win over Sweden to earn bronze in Sochi. The only other two Olympic medals in Swiss hockey history were won by the men long ago and were also bronze (1928, 1948).

Source: iihf.com