2004 IIHF Women's World Championship

Triple Effort from Hefford
by Joel Mac Dougall

It was an 11-0 win for Team Canada over China tonight at the Metro Centre in Halifax.

Janya Hefford led Canada with a hat trick and an assist. The four point effort earned Hefford player of the game honours.

Hefford started and ended game scoring by going to the net and putting in rebounds. Her second goal came from just throwing the puck on net.

In her first World Championship game, Gillian Apps was able to make a significant contribution, scoring two goals. "It’s awesome to score my first goal," said Apps. "It was really nice to get the jitters out."

It was a valiant effort for the Chinese, who managed to cause a number of turnovers in the first period that created a couple of chances.
The first period was a moral victory for the Chinese. They played a very patient game and managed to clog up the middle of the ice and cut off a number of Canadian passes.

"It was a good start," said Canadian defence Gillian Ferrari. "We could have done better."

In the end, Canada proved to be too tough when they turned it on. Aside from getting into a bit of penalty trouble in the second period, they gave China little opportunity to score.

"Between the first and second period I told them we had to get better at our breakout," said Team Canada head coach Karen Hughes. "We got some good attacks after that."

The Chinese goaltender played a strong game despite what the scoreboard might indicate. Early on in the first, Hong Guo came sliding across to make a brilliant glove save.

It was shortly after making a terrific save off a Cherie Piper breakaway that Guo was hit in the head by Hayley Wickenheiser driving hard to the net. "I had a sore neck after, but it wasn’t that bad," said Guo.

Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouelette both had two goals each for Canada in the game. The scoring was rounded out by singles from Danielle Goyette and Vicky Sunohara.