Canada beats Finland 2-0, stays perfect heading into women’s worlds quarterfinals

Detailed summary

HERNING - Caitlin Kraemer and Sarah Fillier scored, and Ann-Renée Desbiens made 25 saves as Canada finished perfect in the group stage of the world women's hockey championship…

HERNING - Caitlin Kraemer and Sarah Fillier scored, and Ann-Renée Desbiens made 25 saves as Canada finished the group stage of the world women’s hockey championship with a perfect record, beating Finland 2-0 on Wednesday.

Finland provided by far the toughest opponent in Group B for Canada, which won its previous three games by a combined score of 24-1 while heavily outshooting the competition.

“It was a big step up from the last couple of games,” Kramer said. “We knew Finland would come at us hard, with their usual intensity and aggressiveness. There were some ups and downs, but we stuck together and got the win.”

Kraemer opened the scoring at 3:22 of the first period, but Canada wouldn’t get any breathing room until Fillier’s goal at 6:44 of the third.

Finnish goaltender Sanni Ahola kept her team in the game, making 36 saves.

“It was a good game, two good teams playing hard. We made a couple of tiny mistakes, and they scored right away,” said Finnish forward Petra Nieminen, a draft pick of the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire. “We take a lot of positives with us from this game, and we want to keep going.”

Canada will face the fourth-place team in Group A in Friday’s quarterfinals.

The Canadians won silver at last year’s championship, losing 4-3 to the United States in overtime.

The Finns put Canada’s defence under pressure early, but Kraemer opened the scoring on a two-on-one. Ahola got a piece of Kraemer’s wrist shot, but the puck trickled into the net.

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