Sarah Nurse and Daryl Watts celebrate after the game.Marton Monus/Reuters
Canada’s women’s hockey team narrowly averted disaster against Switzerland Monday, winning their Olympic semi-final 2-1, in a game that was far closer on the scoreboard than it was on the ice.
In a game where Switzerland, overmatched and badly outshot, collapsed into a defensive shell from the start, Canada put a barrage of pucks on goaltender Andrea Braendli, but struggled to pull away.
With the game scoreless a few minutes into the second period, Marie Philip-Poulin, playing near the blueline, dropped to one knee and one-timed a pass from Sophie Jaques. The puck ricocheted off a Swiss defender and into the net, putting Canada up 1-0.
It was a historic marker, giving Poulin 19 career Olympic goals, one ahead of former teammate Hayley Wickenheiser. About seven minutes later, she struck again, snapping a Daryl Watts rebound past Braendli, giving Canada a two goal lead.
But the Swiss put a scare into the Canadian bench in the third period when Alina Muller forced a turnover behind Canada’s net and fed the puck to wide open Rahel Enzler, cutting the lead to 2-1.
A loss to the Swiss would have been nothing short of shocking.
In women’s hockey, where Canada and the U.S. have dominated the field by a wide margin for decades, Canada came into the game with a perfect 22-0 record against Switzerland in international play.
While Canada has won five of the seven gold medals since women’s hockey was introduced at the Olympics in 1998, Switzerland’s only medal, a bronze, came at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
The multi-goal performance from Poulin was a welcome sight for the Canadian bench. Poulin injured her right knee early in the tournament after being taken hard into the boards versus the Czechs. The injury forced Poulin, known as Captain Clutch for her propensity to score big goals, to miss two games.
The win sets up another showdown in the final against the Americans. Canada and the U.S. have faced off six times in the Olympic final.