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2021 Worlds

Canada overwhelms a shorthanded Germany

Poulin returns from injury in Canada’s dominant quarterfinal win

Team Canada cruised to a victory over a shorthanded Team Germany in their quarterfinal game tonight. Canada owned the puck all game and kept Franziska Albl, Sandra Abstreiter, and the German defense busy from whistle to whistle. It was a dominant display of puck possession.

At the end of 60 minutes, Canada had seven goals and Germany had three shots on net. Those two numbers tell the story of the box score but fail to capture the resilience of a German squad that had to play one of the game’s true superpowers with four fewer skaters dressed. It was not a fair fight.

Canada

With their captain back on the ice, the host nation played like the ice was tilted in their favor all game long. It took Canada just 89 seconds to score on their first shot of the game. Mélodie Daoust helped lead Canada to a 3-0 first period. After the first, it was clear that the Canadians were going to come away with a win.

Still, it was evident how much Canada was energized by Poulin’s return, which was highlighted by her scoring in the second period. There also had to be a sigh of relief on the bench when Poulin and Daoust connected on a five-minute power play to score the team’s first power-play goal of the tournament.

With that said, Canada was on cruise control for the vast majority of this game. The veterans and the kids all contributed to the victory and got into the box score. It was the host nation’s fifth consecutive victory of the tournament.

It’s safe to say that the Canadians are on a roll.

Goals scored by Canada: Ashton Bell (EV), Natalie Spooner (EV), Brianne Jenner (EV), Natalie Spooner (EV), Marie-Philip Poulin (EV), Mélodie Daoust (PP), Sarah Fillier (EV)

Germany

Albl and the Germans settled down a bit after allowing two goals on Canada’s first three shots but there was no real attack from Germany. They simply didn’t have enough bodies to put up a real fight in this one, which is a shame because German hockey deserves a lot more respect than it gets in North America.

Abstreiter started the second period in relief of Albl and put in an equally admirable performance. Unfortunately for Germany, they lost another one of their skaters when Lena Düsterhöft was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting Renata Fast from behind early in the second. From that moment on, the Germans were down to just 15 skaters against Canada.

The writing was on the wall as soon as the Germans hung up the jerseys of all of their injured players behind their bench before the puck dropped for the opening faceoff. Truth be told, they never quit on their goalies and blocked a ton of shots while spending the majority of the game chasing pucks in their own zone.

We all learned a lot about the resilience and character of Team Germany tonight.

Goals scored by Germany: n/a

TIG’s Players of the Game

These are not the same as the IIHF’s Players of the Game. This honor is based on performance and also vibes.

Germany: Julia Zorn

Canada: Mélodie Daoust

Final Links:

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