{"id":461610,"date":"2026-02-08T11:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461610\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T11:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:15:09","slug":"canadian-womens-team-shakes-off-rust-to-beat-switzerland-in-olympic-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461610\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian women\u2019s team shakes off rust to beat Switzerland in Olympic opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Team Canada celebrates a goal against Switzerland in the preliminary round of Olympic women’s hockey on Saturday.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

It had been eight years since any team not named the United States had managed to shut out Canada\u2019s women\u2019s hockey team for a full period at the Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But as they kicked off their quest for a gold medal in Milan Saturday night, Canada ended the first period of their opening game scoreless and a bit confused. Despite outshooting the Swiss 17-2, they had nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n

The Canadians could be forgiven for getting a late start though. It\u2019s how the Olympics has gone for them so far.<\/p>\n

Canada defeated Switzerland 4-0 Saturday to begin their tournament. But they were supposed to have started on Thursday against Finland, before stomach flu ripped through the Finnish dressing room and forced that game to be delayed a week.<\/p>\n

A second hockey team is hit with norovirus at Milan Olympics as concerns grow over outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n

Hitting the ice for the first time, Canada came out shooting. But a combination of nerves, rust and a goalpost or two kept them off the scoresheet.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until veteran Natalie Spooner, playing in her fourth Olympics, opened the scoring midway through the second period, when a Marie-Philip Poulin one-timer bounced off the Swiss goalie and then off Spooner\u2019s leg, that Canada broke the stalemate.<\/p>\n

A few minutes into the third period, a point shot from blueliner Renata Fast missed short-side and banked off the boards to a wide open Sarah Fillier, who put Canada up 2-0. <\/p>\n

Julia Gosling later tipped an Erin Ambrose point shot to put Canada up 3-0. All of the first three goals came on the power play. <\/p>\n

Daryl Watts then scored near the end of the game to make it 4-0.<\/p>\n

Canadian head coach Troy Ryan chalked up the first period to nerves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just looked really antsy and just a little bit panicky,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cI think it\u2019s somewhat expected in a first game of the Olympics. Obviously if that continues to happen, it\u2019s probably going to be a little bit more nerve-wracking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada is used to rolling over their initial opponents. Coming into Saturday\u2019s game, they were a perfect 7-0 in Olympic openers and had outscored the other team 76-1 in those games.<\/p>\n

Why Marie-Philip Poulin, the best women\u2019s hockey player in the world, picks up all the pucks after warmup<\/a><\/p>\n

They certainly didn\u2019t lack chances against the Swiss. By the end of the game, Canada had outshot them 55-6.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitzerland played a good defensive game,\u201d Canada\u2019s Fast said. \u201cTheir goaltender played amazing, and we had to stay patient and stick to our game plan and play as a team, and I think we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a short tournament like the Olympics, Fast said the team must make adjustments to improve on Saturday\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team that can adapt, can adjust throughout the event and get better every game, is usually the most successful,\u201d Fast said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking to do is just get better every game.\u201d <\/p>\n

The win was a moment forward Jennifer Gardiner had been waiting for her whole life. The 24-year-old is one of seven Olympic rookies on Team Canada, which is icing a mix of veterans, including Spooner and Poulin, and first-timers such as Gardiner, Gosling and Watts.<\/p>\n

Gardiner said the delayed start to these Games for Canada was an unexpected bit of adversity, but it made her that much more excited to step on Olympic ice for the first time, two days after it was originally supposed to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously things happen and we have to be adaptable. That\u2019s kind of something our team has talked about,\u201d Gardiner said before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so excited. I feel like any time you get to throw on the Maple Leaf jersey, it\u2019s the greatest honour of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Spooner, scoring the deciding goal was a moment to savour. After winning gold in Beijing in 2022, the 35-year-old became a mom and battled back from a career-threatening knee injury. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long road to get here,\u201d Spooner said of the knee injury. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely days where I doubted. Obviously there\u2019s days when you\u2019re in pain and you\u2019re working hard to come back and you think, wow, can I really do this? Can I get back to where I was? Is it going to be good enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

Spooner has taken on a utility role in Milan. Ryan inserted her into the lineup as an extra forward, shuffling her through lines and using her in front of the net on the power play, which is where she scored the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to make the best of whatever time you\u2019re given,\u201d Spooner said. \u201cHopefully it\u2019s enough and it\u2019s able to have an impact \u2013 whether it\u2019s a goal or not, it\u2019s moving the team in the right direction.\u201d <\/p>\n

Follow our live daily coverage<\/a> of the Winter Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Team Canada celebrates a goal against Switzerland in the preliminary round of Olympic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,1398,4963,187287,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-461610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nodelphi","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-olympicstaff","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}