In just the second-ever meeting between Canada and Czechia at the Women’s Worlds, Sunday’s game in Utica ended with a result similar to their first.
After beating Czechia 5-1 in the preliminary round last year, Canada scored another five goals against their opponent and pulled off the shutout this time around. The 5-0 win sees Canada stay perfect at the tournament after three games — two of them shutouts — while Czechia drops to one win and two losses.
The Canadians came out ready to go in this game, not letting the back-to-back bronze medallist Czechs gain any real traction in the first 20 minutes. Their offence got going quick too — with Danielle Serdachny opening the scoring off a faceoff just 2:07 into play. Any time anyone from Czechia got a hold of the puck, Canada was right there, moving their feet and taking away space with their sticks, in order to regain possession.
The first period was definitely some of the best hockey we have seen Canada play so far in Utica. In order to be ready for the U.S. on Monday, Canada likely knew they had to come out swinging in this matchup to build all the momentum they could ahead of facing their rivals. Canada was constantly pressing Czechia, going into battles on the wall and playing physical, which are all things they will need to successfully do against the defending champion Americans as well.
Down 3-0 after the first period, Czechia put up a better fight over the remaining 40 minutes but ultimately could not break Canadian goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens despite a few solid chances. Czechia found themselves buried in an even deeper hole after Canada’s subsequent two goals — one from Renata Fast in the second period and one from Laura Stacey in the third. Besides Czechia’s two power-play opportunities, their best chance at scoring came midway through the second period, when Tereza Vanisova intercepted a Canada pass and shot up the ice for a breakaway shot on Desbiens.
The win was Desbiens’ second of the tournament, propelling her to the top of the goaltending leaderboard for best save percentage (.978) and goals-against average (0.5). It was also her 18th total win at the tournament, the fourth most all-time for goaltenders.
Here are some of the key takeaways from Sunday’s matchup.
O’Neill’s career-best performance
If Kristin O’Neill was a name you weren’t overly familiar with prior to this tournament, that’s likely no longer the case if you’ve been tuning in to Canada’s games.
After a strong showing in their previous two contests, the 26-year-old took her play up a notch Sunday. O’Neill added her name to Canada’s scoresheet three times in the first period, recording an assist on the first goal and following it up with two goals of her own.
It is worth noting O’Neill’s back-to-back tallies both originated on plays that began with her winning the faceoff in Czechia’s zone. Her first goal was scored on a delayed penalty for Czechia that allowed Canada to get a sixth skater on the ice. Then, after putting her team up 2-0, O’Neill increased their lead further with a second consecutive goal, batting her own rebound out of the air and into Czechia’s net. While the play was reviewed for a high stick, the original call on the ice stood and it was ruled a good goal.
Her three points Sunday marks a single-game career-high with the national team. And, having recorded just two goals and four points in her previous 19 Women’s Worlds games, O’Neill doubled her career goals and nearly doubled her career points at the tournament.
A native of Oakville, Ont., O’Neill is an alternate captain for PWHL Montreal. Over 18 games in the league’s ongoing inaugural season, she has a goal and four assists for a total of five points.
A first for everyone
The Canadians scored five goals in this game, and they came from four different skaters: Serdachny, O’Neill, Fast and Stacey. Each goal — excluding O’Neill’s second of the game — marked the first of the tournament for the respective scorers. With 12 goals over three games, Canada now has 10 different skaters who have scored this year. O’Neill and Emma Maltais are the only skaters with more than one goal currently.
A lacking power play
Canada was one-for-four on the power play heading into Sunday’s game. And while they may have had better success drawing penalties against Czechia than they did against Finland and Switzerland, their struggle to convert showed no improvement.
The team drew four penalties in the first — thanks to some undisciplined play from Czechia — but only got three real chances on the power play after scoring during a delayed penalty on one of the calls. Canada earned another chance on the power play in the second period, but ultimately all four of their opportunities came to an end due to time instead of a goal.
Now one-for-eight on the power play, Canada has the fourth-worst power-play percentage (12.5) at the tournament. It seems this is potentially the result of two factors: teams figuring them out, and Canada not being aggressive enough. They seem to be waiting for the perfect play to pan out rather than throwing anything and everything they can at the net.
Regardless of the reason, it is an issue the Canadians will need to figure out quickly if they want to sustain this level of success in the playoff round.
Shots, shots and some more shots…
Canada dominated Czechia on all fronts in this game, but aside from the score, nothing displayed this quite as clearly as the two teams’ respective shot totals. The shots were 42-13 in favour of Canada by the game’s conclusion, with the largest margin being 16 shots in the first and the smallest being five shots in the second (18-2 in the first, 11-6 in the second and 13-5 in the third).
UP NEXT: Canada will face the also undefeated U.S. on Monday in their fourth and final round-robin game. Meanwhile, Czechia has a day off before their matchup with Switzerland on Tuesday to cap off group play.
Source link