Day 3: Canada and Finland Debut

The women’s tournament continued with a full slate and big wins across the board, including Canada in their first appearance in the tournament. 

Starting the day with Germany vs Japan. Germany opened the tournament with a loss to Sweden, they were looking to turn the tides against Japan who opened the tournament with a win over France. It didn’t take long for Germany to find the back of the net, scoring less than a minute into the opening frame, Germany added a pair to extend their lead to 3 entering the second. The Germans once again capitalized early in the first followed by another not long after from Laura Kluge, who currently plays for the Boston Fleet, for her first Olympic goal. Japan tried to forge a comeback scoring back-to-back goals in the final minutes of the second period, but it wouldn’t be enough. 

Germany is back in action Monday February 9th at 10:40 (EST) as they face off against France, who are still looking for their first win of the tournament. In the matchup lookout for Laura Kluge who found her stride in the match against Japan, scoring her first Olympic goal and contributed 3 assists. 

Up next was Sweden vs Italy. In their opening game the hosts found a historic first win marking the country's first-ever win in women’s ice hockey. But the strength of the Swedish team was too much to overcome, in a big 6-1 win for Sweden, to remain undefeated in the tournament. With their dominance in Group B this year discussion has started around whether they’ve outgrown Group B, if they continue to carry on as they have, there would be a really good case for their promotion to Group A. 

They are back in action tomorrow against France, who has yet to get a win in this year’s tournament. In the matchup look out for Thea Johansson, from the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs of the NCAA, who now has 3 goals in just 2 games. 

Up next was the USA taking on Finland. The game was Finland’s first appearance in the tournament after their opening match against Canada was postponed due to illness. While the USA came off a dominant performance against Czechia. 

While the scoring was slow to start with the first coming from Alex Carpenter late in the first, they found way in the second Taylor Heise and Megan Keller’s first Olympic goals, and a history-tying goal from Hilary Knight who is on track to beat the USA all-time Olympic scoring record that is currently held by Natalie Darwitz and Katie King. In the third period Abbey Murphy closed out the game, to take a 5-0 win against Finland to remain undefeated in the tournament. 

The US is back in action Monday as they take on Switzerland, who came back from a 3-0 deficit against Czechia to win it in a shootout. In the matchup look out for Abbey Murphy who has had a relatively quiet tournament so far the NCAA star has 61 points in 26 games with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. 

Wrapping up the day was Switzerland taking on Canada. After their first game was postponed Canada entered the tournament with a dominant performance over the Swiss team, holding them to only 6 shots in their 4-0 win. Canada’s scoring came from Natalie Spooner, Sarah Fillier, Julia Gosling, and Daryl Watts. While the standout Swiss side was Saskia Maurer in net who held off 51 shots from the Canadians keeping the match close, fans on both sides are talking about the performance and how well she’d do in the PWHL. 

Canada is back in action Monday as they take on Czechia who is looking for their first win of the tournament. In the matchup, lookout for Julia Gosling from the Seattle Torrent who got her first Olympic goal in the 4-0 win as she has been heating up this season in the PWHL now with 12 points in 14 games.