Canada Wins Round Robin Group at Air Canada Cup in Germany

The atmosphere was electric at the Ravensburg Eisporthalle on Friday night with drums beating and fans chanting all throughout the game as the Canadian Women’s Under 22 Team skated to a 5-0 victory over host Germany. The soldout crowd of 3000 fans established a new attendance benchmark for a women’s hockey game in Germany.

While Canada dominated the play in the first period, the game remained scoreless as Viona Harrer was solid in the German goal. The Canadians continued to buzz around the German net in the second and were finally rewarded with a goal at 15:35 when Sabrina Harbec opened the scoring by burying a centring pass from the mid slot. Valerie Chouinard and Britni Smith drew the assists.

Canada got off to a quick start in the third as Chouinard upped the lead to 2-0 just 27 seconds into the period. Assists went to Annie Guay and Rebecca Johnston. Johnston added a goal of her own three minutes later as she was sent in alone by Melanie Gagnon and managed to sneak the puck between Harrer’s glove and pad for a 3-0 lead. Meghan Agosta, who had been turned aside on two earlier breakaway attempts, found the net at 12:38 with Annie Guay and Ashley Riggs drawing the assists. Bobbi Ross added one more goal for Canada in the final minute of play finishing off a nice passing play from Hayley McMeekin and Stephanie Jones. Shannon Szabados turned aside 12 shots in the Canadian goal to earn the shutout.

The Air Canada Cup consists of two pools of three teams. As part of the tie breaking procedure in the event of a three way tie at the end of the round robin, all round robin games feature a three player shootout at the conclusion of the game regardless of the score in regulation time. After Susan Gotz scored on Germany’s second penalty shot, Valerie Chouinard came through under pressure on Canada’s third shot to force the shootout to another round. Sarah Vaillancourt beat Harrer high to the glove side while Szabados stopped the final German shooter to preserve the shootout win for Canada.

Team Canada will take on Switzerland, the second place finisher from the other pool, in semi final action on Saturday afternoon. Germany will play Russia in the second semi final on Saturday night with bronze and gold medal games to follow on Sunday.

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Goals/Buts :
None/Aucun

Penalties/Pénalités :
Christina Fellner GER (Tripping/Trebucher) 9:08; Sabrina Harbec CAN (Slashing/Coup de baton) 9:39

Goals/Buts :
1. CAN, Sabrina Harbec (Valerie Chouinard, Britni Smith) 15:35

Penalties/Pénalités :
Tessa Bonhomme CAN (Hooking/Raccrocher) 0:21
Claudia Grundmann GER (Tripping/Trebucher) 7:11
Stephanie Jones CAN (Hooking/Raccrocher) 9:50
Michaela Lanzl GER (Knneing/Donner du genou) 12:19

Goals/Buts :
2. CAN, Valerie Chouinard (Rebecca Johnston, Annie Guay) 0:27
3. CAN, Rebecca Johnston (Melanie Gagnon) 3;24
4. CAN, Meghan Agosta (Ashley Riggs, Annie Guay) 12:36
5. CAN, Bobbi Ross (Hayley McMeekin, Stephanie Jones) 19:17

Penalties/Pénalités :
None/Aucun