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Calibre of competition increases BY DONNA SPENCER ALIFAX — After two glorified practice games, the Canadian women’s hockey team is looking forward to much stiffer competition at the world championship when it faces the United States on Saturday. Germany Canada hammered 13-0 Thursday after opening the tournament with an 11-0 thrash ing of China two days earlier. Canada, the U.S. and Sweden — which finished in that order at the 2002 Olympic Games — fin ished first in their respective pools and now form their own playoff group. Canada takes on the U.S. on Saturday (TSN, 2 p.m. CST) and Sweden on Sunday (TSN, 6 p m.). Canadian forward Jayna Hefford, who scored twice Thursday, knows her team will face a major step up in competi tion against the Americans. “In a game like that you can get away with some bad habits once the score gets run up,” Hefford said. ““We need to have those good habits Saturday when we play the U.S.” The top two teams in that group will meet again in the final April 6. The third-place team will play for bronze against the country that emerges from a group of the second seeds from the pools. The U.S. defeated Russia 8-0 earlier Thursday to finish 2-0. Sweden and Finland were both 1-1 in Pool C after a 2-2 tie, but the Swedes were awarded first on goal differential. Hefford and Pilot Mound native Delaney Collins each had two goals and an assist and Jennifer Botterill had a goal and three assists to pace Canada’s offence against Germany. Gillian Apps, Cassie Campbell, Danielle Goyette, Kelly Bechard, Caroline Ouellette, Colleen Sostorics, Dana Antal and Vicky Sunohara had the other goals before 7,251 spectators at the Metro Centre. Canadian head coach Karen Hughes experimented with some different line combinations once her team began dominating the game. She gave more ice time to younger players such as Apps and Gina Kingsbury in the sec ond and third periods. “I thought we used to these games to work on our offensive team play,’ Hughes said. “Obviously against the US, we're going to have to focus on playing better defensive team play.”” CP German goaltender Stephanie Wartosh-Kurten fences with Pilot Mound native Delaney Collins for a rebound Thursday. Collins had two goals and an assist for Canada in a 13-0 win.
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Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Fri, Apr 02, 2004
Page 26
Full Page
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Manitoba H.
CA 17 Aug 2026
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