CALGARY — Canada’s women’s hockey team is bent on replicating the success of its soccer counterparts on the world stage.
The hockey players were up early at their Calgary hotel and glued to the dining room television when Canadian women beat Sweden in penalty shots to claim Olympic soccer gold in Tokyo earlier this month.
“We wanted to get on the ice right after that game. We were all fired up,” Canadian hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin told The Canadian Press.
“For us watching the soccer game, it was amazing. Those girls really stood together. It’s a different sport, but at the same time, we do all the same sacrifices, we do all that hard work for that moment.
“I think they really inspired us.”
Just two weeks after the soccer triumph in Tokyo, Canada opens the women’s world hockey championship Friday against Finland in Calgary.
Canadian teams have won gold in 10 world championships, but not since 2012 in Burlington, Vt.
Canada lost to host Finland in a semifinal in Espoo, and didn’t reach the final for the first time, in the last world championship held in 2019.
The Canadians finished third. The United States edged Finland in a shootout to claim a fifth straight world title.
Canada downed the Finns 4-1 in Wednesday’s pre-tournament game and faces them again in the tournament opener.
The host country then meets Russia on Sunday, Switzerland on Tuesday and concludes the preliminary round Thursday in Pool A against the Americans.
The Czech Republic, Japan, Germany and promoted Hungary and Denmark are in Pool B.
The quarterfinals are Aug. 28 followed by the Aug. 30 semifinals and the medal games Aug. 31.
No tickets were sold for the preliminary round at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre, but Hockey Canada hasn’t ruled out spectators for playoffs.
Both the 2020 and 2021 women’s championship in Nova Scotia were cancelled because of COVID-19.
The relocation and rescheduling of the 2021 tournament to Calgary in late summer is an unusual start in Canada’s preparation for February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Twenty-nine women arrived in Calgary in late July for “centralization”.
Hockey Canada’s standard practice six to seven months out from a Winter Games is to centralize the women together in Calgary for training and games in order to choose top performers for the Olympic roster.
A world championship off the hop had head coach Troy Ryan quickly choosing his 25-player roster.
“Having the world championship at the front end of your centralization, there’s no template for that definitely,” he said. “Any time you’re selecting a national-team roster, it’s also about a body of work.
“Difficult decisions, but ones we were comfortable making at this point.”
Poulin and assistant captains Brianne Jenner, Blayre Turnbull and Jocelyne Larocque lead a Canadian side intent on reclaiming women’s hockey supremacy over the next seven months.
Poulin played just a few shifts in Espoo because of a knee injury that would have still hampered her in 2020 had that world championship gone ahead.
“While it really sucked we couldn’t play that world championship, time heals a lot,” said the 30-year-old from Beauceville, Que.
“It really helped me be able to take care of myself physically and mentally.”
A third of Canada’s roster makes its world championship debut in Calgary — goaltender Kristen Campbell, defenders Ashton Bell, Claire Thompson, Ella Shelton and forwards Victoria Bach, Emma Maltais and Kristin O’Neill.
That’s significant turnover on what’s been traditionally a veteran squad.
Forward Jessie Eldridge of Barrie, Ont., was added to the centralized roster in July. Veteran defender Meaghan Mikkelson is sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
Mikkelson, Eldridge, defender Micah Zandee-Hart and forward Julia Gosling were left off the world championship roster.
“We’re very optimistic they’ll compete during centralization and ultimately, hopefully find themselves on roster spots for the Olympics,” Ryan said.
Canada has played just seven international games in the more than two years since the last world championship, going 4-3 against the U.S. in 2019-20.
Pandemic restrictions not only eliminated international and domestic games for months, but even group skates where the Canadian players lived were not allowed at times.
The players invested the extra time into physical fitness Both players and management say the women posted the highest scores of their lives in fitness testing upon arrival in Calgary.
“Everyone did the hard work on their own and when it came time to come together, we’re ready to go,” Poulin said.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
