Canadian women blank Czechia 5-0 at Worlds; Sweden, Denmark also win

Kristin O’Neill had two goals and an assist in the first period and Canada breezed to a 5-0 victory over Czechia at the IIHF Women’s World Championship yesterday [Macau time].

The victory sets up a showdown between Canada (3-0-0-0) and the United States (3-0-0-0) yesterdayto close out the Group A preliminary round. Both teams have clinched spots in the quarterfinals.

Czechia (1-0-0-2) currently sits in third place in Group A. All five seeds in Group A and the top three in Group B advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals. Czechia closes out the prelims against Switzerland today.

Canada grabbed the lead just 2:07 into the match when Danielle Serdachny scored with an assist from O’Neill. O’Neill gave Canada a two-goal lead at the nine-minute mark with an assist from Sarah Nurse. O’Neill scored again, unassisted off a rebound, with 2:30 left in the period to make it 3-0.

Renata Fast had the lone score of the second period to push the lead to 4-0. Jamie Lee Rattray and Nurse notched assists.

Laura Stacey made it 5-0 less than six minutes into the final period with assists from Jocelyne Larocque and Blayre Turnbull.

Ann-Renee Desbiens finished with 13 saves in goal for Canada. It was her sixth career shutout in the event. Desbiens has an 18-1 record for Canada with her only loss coming to the U.S. in last year’s gold-medal match.

Klara Peslarova stopped 37 shots for Czechia.

SWEDEN 6, JAPAN 2

Josefin Bouveng scored twice, including the finale in a three-goal third period, and added an assist as Sweden (3-0-0-0) remained unbeaten in the Group B preliminaries.

Japan (0-0-1-2) is in danger of missing the quarterfinals for the first time since 2017.

Sweden jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period. Ebba Hedqvist used assists from Ida Karlsson and Sara Hjalmarsson to score 6:45 into the match and Bouveng added her first less than two minutes later, scoring unassisted.

Japan bounced back in the second period to knot the score at 2-all. Haruka Toko had the first goal — with an assist from Shiori Koike — at 7:23. Makoto Ito found the net 49 seconds later.

Hilda Svensson gave Sweden the lead for good, using assists from Maja Nylen Persson and Hanna Olsson, to score with 1:24 remaining in the period.

Thea Johansson took a pass from Mira Hallin and scored 4:58 into the final period to give Sweden a two-goal lead. Sofie Lundin and Bouveng notched assists on a goal by Hjalmarsson that made it 5-2. Bouveng capped the scoring with 3:19 left to play, scoring unassisted. She leads all players with four goals so far in the event.

It was the 500th match in world championship history. Sweden also played in the first match of the competition, a 15-1 defeat at the hands of Canada.

Sweden closes out the preliminary round against Germany. Japan will square off against Denmark today.

DENMARK 2, CHINA 1 (SO)

Frederikke Foss and Nicoline Jensen scored shootout goals and Emma-Sofie Nordstrom saved all three shots she faced to help Denmark pull out a win after a late rally by China.

Minghui Kong netted the equalizer for China (0-1-1-1) with 1:51 remaining in the third period, using assists from Xin Fang and Baiwei Yu to score for the second time in the tournament.

Denmark (0-1-0-2) took a 1-0 lead with 92 seconds remaining in the second period when Amanda Refsgaard used assists from Frida Kielstrup and Nicoline Jensen to score her first goal of the event.

Jiahui Zhan had 10 saves in goal for China and Nordstrom stopped nine shots for Denmark in a scoreless first period.

Zhan finished with 33 saves for China. Nordstrom stopped 23 shots for Denmark.

China closes out the prelims on Tuesday against Germany. Denmark squares off against Japan today in its finale. The quarterfinals begin on Thursday. MDT/AP