2006 Air Canada Cup
Game Summary/Sommaire du match
Tuesday January 3, 2006/ mardi le 3 janvier
Canada vs. Germany/Canada vs. Allemagne

After over 18 hours of traveling and a couple of practices Canada played their first game of their European trip, defeating Germany 2-0 in an exhibition game in Heilbronn, Germany in front of over a 1000 loyal German supports and a small, but very vocal contingent of Canadian families.

Both teams were caught off-guard by the tighter officiating standards and there was a parade of players to the box right from the 1:40 mark of the 1st period. Canada and Germany each had 7 penalties giving both teams numerous opportunities to work on specialty team situations, including being on both sides of a couple of 5 on 3 situations. Canada managed to score the only power play goal of the game at the 14:32 mark of the 1st period, which turned out to be the winner. Kaley Hall, took a Noemie Marin pass, stepped across the goal crease and tucked a backhand past the sprawling German netminder. A few minutes later Noemie Marin recovered a puck in a scramble, beat the last German player and goaltender Wartosch-Kurten to put Canada up 2-0 with just under 5 minutes left in the period.

Neither team could get any rhythm going in the 2nd period which continued to be dominated by specialty team play as the referee called an additional 11 minor penalties.
Both teams changed their goaltenders at the 10:04 mark. Canada’s Brittony Chartier turned her shutout over to Shannon Szabados to defend and she did just that as Canada took their 2-0 lead into the next period.

The third period had much better flow as both teams adjusted to the new officiating standard and managed to play more if the period at full strength Shannon Szabados protected the tag-team shut out by stopping the Germans on a slick 2 on 1 at the 7:59 of the third period and then stood tall when Germany walked out alone on a power play at the 12:59 to keep the German’s scoreless. At the other end of the ice Harß stopped 18 Canadian shots, keeping the Germans in the game right to the final buzzer.

Head Coach Lisa Jordan was positive about how the young team handled the its’ 1st game.
“Everybody did a great job of staying in the game considering how limited the flow was. We are very proud of our effort on the PK, both goaltenders played well, making keys saves and not giving the German team any momentum. In the end, we stuck to our game plan, we adjusted well to the standard the official was calling and used our speed to our advantage. Team Germany is a much improved team from last year and we are excited about getting to play them again on Saturday.”

“It has been a great couple of days in Heilbronn. The fans at the game tonight were fantastic. It is so good to see the German team get so much support.”

Canada practices on Wednesday before heading to Ravensburg to begin the European Air Canada Cup where they open against Finland’s U20 team on January 5th. Canada is the defending champion of the Air Canada Cup, having won the event in each of the last three years.