They had their chances and almost double the number of shots, but Canada couldn’t find net and dropped a 2-0 decision to Finland in Monday’s opening-round action of the U18 women’s World Hockey Championship at LaBahn Arena in Madison, Wis.
Ada Eronen and Oona Havana scored for Finland and Emilia Kyrkko stopped 40 shots for the shutout. Hailey MacLeod of Abbotsford, B.C. stopped 13 of 15 shots in the Canadian net.
Finland went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Canada went 0-for-2.
Canada, playing without Jade Iginla who was injured in a 3-1 pre-tournament loss to the U.S. last Thursday, will face Sweden on Tuesday.
“I thought [Finland] outplayed us in the first part of the game,” said Canadian coach Howie Draper.” They were more prepared to win the battles that they needed to win. I felt like we started off a little bit hesitant and more anxious, which took us away from our game.
“There were positive signs, though. I think at times we showed what we are capable of, and now it is about making sure that we bring the urgency and the compete level that we need against Sweden.”
Sarah MacEachern figured once the offence gets on track her Canadian team will be fine.
“We had 40 shots on net and we know that we need to crash the net more. There were a lot of rebounds, so capitalizing on those chances tomorrow [against Sweden] will be very important. We just need to keep rolling,” said MacEachern.
Brooke Disher of Lake Country, B.C. led all Canadian skaters in ice time with 22:08