Linemates Natalie Spooner, Sarah Fillier and Melodie Daoust continued to be a productive trio for Canada at the women’s world hockey championship.
The three women combined for four goals in the host country’s 7-0 quarter-final win Saturday over Germany. Canada faces Switzerland in Monday’s semifinal.
The medal games are Tuesday at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre.
Spooner scored twice and had an assist Saturday. Daoust’s goal and two assists gave her a team-leading four goals and six assists in five tournament games, ahead of Spooner with four goals and five assists.
WATCH l Canada rolls past Germany for quarter-final win:
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Natalie Spooner scores twice and adds an assist as Canada blanks Germany 7-0 in the quarter-finals at the women’s world hockey championship. 0:51
Fillier, the youngest player on Canada’s roster at 21 years old, had three goals and two assists.
Fillier, Ashton Bell and Marie-Philip Poulin each had a goal and an assist, and Brianne Jenner also scored for Canada.
Spooner, Daoust and Fillier are a new combination in Canada’s attack.
“It’s no secret Daoust plays with good poise and patience and has great hands and distributes the puck well,” Canadian head coach Troy Ryan said.
“They made sense, at least on paper. Both Daoust and Natalie are great with young players, so we knew that would help Sarah come along and gain confidence as the event went on.”
Spooner says each woman brings complementary skills to the table.
“The good thing about my job is I am around the net so I get to knock in some of the garbage and tip a few pucks in,” she explained.
“I’ve actually never had the chance to play with Melo before, so that was a new one. She definitely faked me out the first few times in practice. I thought she was going to shoot it every time. We’re all so different and it’s working for us.”
Canadian goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer faced just three shots for her shutout.
Germany’s Franziska Albl stopped 22 shots over two periods of work. Sandra Abstreiter made 23 saves in the third.
Captain Poulin returns
Poulin returned to Canada’s lineup Saturday. The captain sat out a 5-1 win over the United States to conclude the preliminary round after taking a hard shot in the chest earlier in the tournament.
Canada topped Pool A at 4-0 and met third-placed Germany (2-2) in Pool B.
Injuries whittled the German side down to 16 skaters in what was already going to be an uphill battle against Canada.
Germany’s ranks thinned further when defender Lena Dusterhoft was slapped with a game misconduct early in the third period for checking from behind
“I think we said that we just wanted to leave it all out there,” assistant captain Anna Reich said. “These players that unfortunately got injured in the games before, they would have done the exact same thing for us.
“So we knew that we just wanted to play our hearts out for them.”
U.S., Switzerland, Finland also advance
In Saturday’s other quarter-finals, the U.S. downed Japan 10-2, Finland edged the Czech Republic 1-0 and the Swiss downed the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 3-2 in overtime.
Hilary Knight led the Americans with two goals and an assist to become her country’s all-time world championship points leader with a career 80.
WATCH l Knight breaks U.S. points record at tournament:
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Hilary Knight breaks Cammi Granato’s U.S. points record of 78 with an assist on Brianna Decker’s goal. Knight would finish the game with 2 goals and an assist to reach 80 points in her career. 0:49
The U.S. takes on Finland in Monday’s other semifinal in a rematch of the gold-medal game in 2019.
Switzerland reached the semifinals for the first time since winning bronze at the 2012 world championship in Burlington, Vt. Laura Zimmerman scored the OT winner for the Swiss.
WATCH l Switzerland stuns ROC in OT:
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Laura Zimmerman scored the overtime winner as Switzerland defeated the Russian Olympic Committee 3-2 at the IIHF women’s world championship in Calgary. 1:55
As the highest-seeded semifinalist, Canada meets the lowest-seeded Swiss on Monday.
Fillier scored on a goal-mouth feed from Spooner at 13:34 of the third. Daoust produced Canada’s first power-play goal of the tournament on a feed from Poulin during Dusterhoft’s major.
Poulin swept a pass from Victoria Bach under Albl’s glove at 15:31 of the second period after Spooner notched her second from the high slot at 8:01.
Jenner and Spooner both scored on rebounds and Bell earned her first of the tournament banking the puck off Albl in the first.
Tournament steering clear of positive COVID tests
Since players, team personnel and officials arrived Aug. 10 in Calgary, no one had tested positive as of Friday among the 2,806 COVID-19 tests administered, the International Ice Hockey Federation said Saturday in a statement.
Hockey Canada kept the option of selling tickets for the playoff round open when the tournament began, but the organization and the host committee ultimately decided against it.
Up to 120 family members are allowed into a dedicated section of the arena.
Hungary (1-3) and Denmark (0-4) won’t be relegated from Pool B.
The IIHF wants to realign relegation and promotion because lower-division world championships weren’t held during the pandemic.
The IIHF also intends to introduce a women’s championship into Olympic years starting next August.
WATCH | Canada overwhelms U.S. in final preliminary game:
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Jamie Lee Rattray scores twice as Canada defeats the United States 5-1 at the women’s world hockey championship and finishes first in Pool A with a 4-0 record. 1:02