Canada and the United States Women’s hockey team were victorious Thursday in their quarterfinal matchups of the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Held at Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York, Canada defeated Sweden 5-1, while the United States won their contest by a score of 10-0.
The Canadians will meet back-to-back bronze medallist Czechia in a semifinal on Saturday (April 13). Czechia advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 victory over Germany. The United States will face Finland, who were 3-1 winners over Switzerland.
Canada Handles Sweden
Renata Fast scored twice to lead Canada, while Natalie Spooner, Jamie Bourbonnais, and Laura Stacey also added goals for Team Canada, which has gotten goals from 11 different players. Defender Jocelyne Larocque contributed a pair of assists in the win.
Canadian penalty killers had not given up a power-play goal in the tournament until last night when Sweden’s Hilda Svensson scored in the first period. Sweden had a chance at a second goal when Lina Ljungblom backhanded a shot into the goal midway through the third period, but officials ruled the play had been whistled dead.
Emerance Maschmeyer got the nod in Canada’s net for the quarterfinal as she did in Brampton, with Kristen Campbell backing her up. Maschmeyer made 17 saves. Sweden’s Emma Soderberg, who had 51 saves against the Canadians last year, stopped 39 at the Adirondack Bank Center. Soderberg is Sweden’s lone Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) player. She’s Boston’s backup behind Aerin Frankel, who posted a 26-save shutout on Monday for the United States.
Canada’s head coach Troy Ryan has incrementally increased the minutes of captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who missed three PWHL Montreal games before the championship with an undisclosed injury. Against Sweden, Poulin leaned hard into Paula Bergstrom and was assessed an illegal hit.
United States Overwhelms Japan
Abbey Murphy and Alex Carpenter each tallied a pair of goals to lift the U.S. National Women’s Team past Japan, 10-0, and advance to the semifinals of the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship at the Adirondack Bank Center.
Frankel made 14 saves for the shutout. Japan’s Riko Kawaguchi stopped 27 of 33 shots before getting the hook. Miyuu Masuhara turned away 11 of 15 in relief.
Thursday’s game is just the sixth all-time meeting between Japan and the United States at the IIHF Women’s World Championship. The U.S. holds a perfect 5-0-0-0 record against Japan, having outscored them 39-3 in those five contests. The U.S. and Japan last met in the opening game of the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Despite falling behind 1-0 early in the first, the U.S. recorded seven unanswered goals to win 7-1. Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight each recorded three points in the victory.
In an offense-filled night for the U.S., Abbey Murphy had two goals and an assist, while captain Hilary Knight had one goal and three assists. Caroline Harvey, Tessa Janecke, and Lacey Eden pitched in with a goal and an assist. Kirsten Simms and Joy Dunne also scored, while Megan Keller and Kendall Coyne Schofield had two assists.
The United States will take on Finland, a team they defeated 5-3 in pool play last week behind Coyne Scholfield’s two goals. Frankel made nine saves in the tightly contested game.
In Saturday’s (April 13) semifinal games, the United States will play Finland at 3 PM ET, and Canada will take on Czechia at 7 PM ET. The losers of the two games will play for third place on Sunday, April 14, at 1 PM ET, while the winners will square off for the gold medal at 5 PM ET.