Canada to face Finland in semis at women's worlds

Finland has a goaltender who can stop a lot of shots, so Canada doesn't want her to see those shots coming.

The Canadians and the Finns will meet in Saturday's semifinal at the women's world hockey championship in a rematch of their Pool B finale Tuesday.

Canada, the Olympic gold medallists, beat the bronze medallists 2-0 to finish the preliminary round with a 3-0 record. Finnish goaltender Noora Raty was responsible for keeping that score close with 48 saves.

The Finns would did not confirm Raty would start again in Saturday's semifinal after she made 38 stops in her team's 5-1 quarter-final win Friday over Sweden.

But Canada was preparing as though she will. During practice, the Canadians focused on their play in front of the net and tipping pucks with their backs to the crease, instead of turning for the tip-in and giving the goalie a view of the shooter.

"We want to generate scoring chances and I think the key there is to make sure the goalie doesn't see the puck," Canadian head coach Ryan Walter said.

Canada spent much of Tuesday's game in Finland's end, but with a 1-0 lead late in the third period, there was a sense the Finns could pull a rabbit of a hat with a mistake or turnover by Canada. Veteran Jayna Hefford put the game away for with an empty-net goal.

"I think, for us, getting a goal early in the game would be important and try and get a couple to follow to get momentum on our side," forward Gillian Apps said. "Get to [Raty] early and often and making sure we have a lot of chaos in front and get the big girls in front. That means me."

Charline Labonte of Boisbriand, Que., got the nod to start in net for Canada on Saturday.

Two-time defending champion U.S., finished first in Pool A at 3-0 and will face Russia in Saturday's later semifinal. Russia was a 5-4 overtime winner over host Switzerland in Friday's other quarter-final.

Raty is Finland's ace and if she's on the bench to start Saturday's game, they're saving the Minnesota Golden Gopher for a bronze-medal game. Finland's choice of goaltender will indicate how confident they feel in challenging for gold.

"After winning this [quarter-final] and having a good game against Canada, I'm confident the team will play a good game," Finland coach Pekka Hamalainen said. "We were able to break Canada's systems and shake their game.

"As long as no medals have been given away, there's always a chance to get the gold."

For her part, Raty wants to face the Canadians again.

"I have a lot of energy," she said. "That's why I train during the summer and fall, so I'm definitely ready. If we can play the same game, we're definitely going to have a shot against them.

"I have to play even better than I did last time."

Finland will play its traditional forecheck versus Canada, but they were more aggressive with it Tuesday.

"Generally in the past they've been more sit back in their one-two-two forecheck," forward Cherie Piper said. "This time we felt a lot more pressure from their defence. They were forcing us to make those chips and plays in small areas."

Piper was back on the ice for the full practice at the Zurich Hallenstadion. She limped off the ice during the previous day's session in Winterthur and didn't return.

"I caught a rut and it was something to be taken care of," Piper explained. "They needed to do some physio to get it to where it needs to be."

Finland has their defensive strategy down, but they need to score Saturday if they want to beat Canada for the first time in their history.

They haven't scored on Canada since the 2009 Four Nations Cup. Since then, they've lost 15-0 at last November's Four Nations Cup and 5-0 in the 2010 Olympic semifinal.

Canada hasn't spent a lot of time defending their own zone in this world championship as they've outscored their opposition 21-0 and outshot them 188-46. The Finns hope to pounce on a Canadian mistake or score on the power play.

"Obviously during the game there's always things happening, chances, a breakaway, a loose puck on the blue-line, power-play and bounce here and there," Hamalainen said.

Labonte stopped 19 shots in Canada's 12-0 win over the host Swiss to open the tournament. Kim St. Pierre and Shannon Szabados extended Canada's shutout streak for the next two games with 13 stops on Kazakhstan and 14 saves on the Finns respectively.

Labonte says 14 shots can feel as difficult as 40, but in a different way.

"It's a mental game," she said. "When you face 10 shots a game, it's so easy to get distracted. When you get 50 shots, a lot of them are routine for you.

"It's much harder to play this kind of game when you maybe get two shots a period, but one of them is a breakaway or a two-on-one. You have to track the puck every where because you never know when it's going to come."

Finland finished third in Pool B at 1-2 and will play their second game in as many days, while Canada went undefeated to get a bye to the semifinal and hasn't played since Tuesday.

"Hopefully they've spent a lot of time in the sun," Hamalainen said.

After playing three games in the cozy confines of the 3,000-seat Eishalle Deutweg in Winterthur, Canada's remaining two games are in the cavernous Hallenstadion in Zurich.

It's a concert hall first and hockey rink second. The Hallenstadion can expand to over 15,000 seats, although sections have been draped to expose less than 10,000 seats for the women's hockey championship.

With the lower seats pushed away from the ice surface Friday, there was ample space behind the end boards. 

"It's like a football field," Walter observed.