What to know for the women’s hockey world championship

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The Canadian girls’s hockey staff arrived ultimately yr’s world championship match in Brampton, Ont., because the undisputed queens of girls’s hockey.

Following a barren stretch the place the rival United States gained 5 straight main titles main as much as the pandemic, Canada reclaimed the world title in a Calgary bubble in 2021 and retained it in 2022 whereas additionally recapturing the Olympic gold medal that yr in Beijing — beating the U.S. within the remaining every time. Canada had additionally scored a dramatic victory over the People in that season’s Rivalry Collection, rallying from down three video games to none to win the ultimate 4 contests.

However, regardless of having fun with home-ice benefit in entrance of supportive crowds within the hockey-mad Higher Toronto Space, the Canadians acquired knocked off their throne in Brampton. After practically getting toppled within the quarterfinals by Sweden’s red-hot goalie (Emma Soderberg made 51 saves earlier than Sarah Nurse scored in time beyond regulation to rescue her staff from an enormous upset), Canada coughed up 4 unanswered targets within the third interval of the ultimate in opposition to the People to lose 6-3 and watch their jubilant archrivals hoist the world-championship trophy on Canadian ice.

Canada earned a measure of revenge this season by as soon as once more rallying from a 3-0 deficit to win the Rivalry Series, capped by an emphatic 6-1 rout in Sport 7 in Minnesota in February. However the Canadians are looking for a full payback at this yr’s world championship in Utica, N.Y., the place group play started at the moment as Canada prepares for its opener on Thursday evening.

Here is what to know for the match:

Sure, Canada and the U.S. will in all probability meet within the remaining once more.

We’ll spare you the suspense instantly. Whereas it is attainable that one other nation may upset one of many two superpowers within the knockout rounds (Sweden virtually did it final yr), historical past strongly suggests one other Canada-U.S. showdown for gold is looming.

The cross-border rivals have performed one another in 21 of the 22 girls’s world championship finals, and no different nation has ever gained one. They’ve duopolized the Olympics too, assembly in six of the seven girls’s finals and successful all the gold medals. Add these numbers up and, that is proper, Canada and the U.S. have squared off in 27 of the 29 main girls’s hockey championship video games.

Not that it is a unhealthy factor. The Canadian and American girls have given us a few of the most memorable worldwide hockey moments of this century. Consider an enraged Hayley Wickenheiser accusing the People of trampling the Canadian flag earlier than Canada’s victory within the 2002 Olympic remaining in Salt Lake Metropolis. Or the Canadian girls gleefully chugging beers and puffing cigars on the ice after capturing the gold in Vancouver in 2010. Or the uncooked ecstasy and agony following Canada’s unbelievable comeback to win the classic 2014 Olympic title game in Sochi. Their world-championship showdowns have delivered loads of drama too, with practically half of the Canada-U.S. finals since 2000 determined in both time beyond regulation or a shootout.

Whereas Canada is sticking with largely the identical veteran roster that fell brief on the worlds final yr, the champion People are including some contemporary substances to the rivalry by bringing 14 faculty gamers to Utica.

That is the primary world championship because the beginning of the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League.

The launch of the six-team PWHL in January lastly gave the Canadian and U.S. nationwide staff gamers a correct league of their very own. Previous to that, they’d toiled within the barnstorming Dream Hole Tour beneath the banner of the Skilled Girls’s Hockey Gamers’ Affiliation whereas attempting to construct a extra “sustainable” different to the rival Premier Hockey Federation.

The PWHL started taking form in June when a gaggle led by billionaire Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor Mark Walter purchased out and folded the PHF and rapidly struck a labour cope with the PWHPA. Franchises have been awarded to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, Minnesota and New York; every staff signed just a few star gamers; a draft happened in September; and the PWHL’s inaugural 24-game season took off on New Yr’s Day in Toronto.

Understanding that the worldwide sport nonetheless drives a ton of curiosity in girls’s hockey, the PWHL is taking a break to permit its greatest gamers to compete on this planet championships earlier than resuming on April 18 for the ultimate 2½ weeks of the common season, adopted by the playoffs.

Some gamers to observe:

Natalie Spooner (Canada): The PWHL chief in targets (15) and factors (20) in 19 video games for league-best Toronto scored twice in Sport 7 of the Rivalry Collection.

Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada): The 33-year-old captain with an uncanny knack for clutch worldwide targets stays among the finest scorers within the sport. She ranks third within the PWHL in each targets (eight) and factors (17) in 16 video games for Montreal. Poulin is banged up heading into the worlds however is predicted to play.

Sarah Fillier (Canada): After scoring eight targets in her Olympic debut in 2022, the younger ahead gained the world championship MVP award final yr by racking up 11 factors in seven video games. Fillier, 23, stayed at Princeton College this season however is predicted to go No. 1 total within the subsequent PWHL draft. Read more about her here.

Taylor Heise (United States): The 2022 worlds MVP and the highest decide on this yr’s PWHL draft has 11 factors in 14 video games for Minnesota, the league’s high U.S.-based staff. Heise, 24, missed time with an upper-body harm suffered in Sport 7 of the Rivalry Collection, however she has 5 factors in 5 video games since returning to the Minnesota lineup.

Hilary Knight (United States): After scoring a hat trick in final yr’s remaining, the 34-year-old captain is ready to grow to be the oldest American ever to seem on this planet championship. Knight, who performs for Boston within the PWHL, already owns the all-time data for factors (101) and targets (61) on the worlds.

Katerina Mrazova (Czech Republic): The edgy ahead helped her nation to bronze on the previous two world championships and is now the PWHL’s high European scorer with 17 factors in 19 video games for Ottawa.

Canada’s schedule:

The Olympic champs open Thursday at 7 p.m. ET in opposition to Finland, which defeated Sweden within the fifth-place sport final yr to earn promotion to the highest group. Canada faces Switzerland on Friday at 3 p.m. ET and the bronze-winning Czech Republic on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET earlier than closing out its preliminary-round slate Monday at 7 p.m. ET vs. america. TSN is displaying the video games.

How the match works:

All 5 groups in Canada’s group are assured a spot within the quarter-finals on April 11. They will be joined by the highest three finishers from Group B, made up of Sweden, Japan, Germany, China and Denmark. Russia stays banned from worldwide hockey as a result of invasion of Ukraine.

Barring a serious shock, Canada and the U.S. will play in separate semifinals on April 13 earlier than squaring off within the remaining once more on April 14.

For extra on the ladies’s world championship, read this preview by CBC Sports activities contributor Karissa Donkin and watch her look on the latest episode of Hockey North with host Rob Pizzo.