University of Minnesota Athletics
Seven Gophers Competing at Worlds
4/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
By Hannah Barnes, Athletic Communications Student Intern
MINNEAPOLIS -- A total of seven current and former Gopher women's hockey players are competing in the 2015 IIHF Women's World Championship in Malmo, Sweden, this week. The tournament began last weekend and ends with the medal round this Saturday.
Three current Gophers in Dani Cameranesi, Hannah Brandt and Lee Stecklein are skating for the U.S. Women's National Team, and they are joined by Gopher alum Anne Schleper. Fellow alumni Kelly Terry and Sarah Davis are competing for Canada, and Mira Jalosuo is representing her native Finland.
The tournament began with preliminary round games in two groups; Group A and Group B. Group A was comprised of Canada, United States, Finland and Russia, and in Group B was Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and Germany.
Schleper is tied for the scoring lead among blueliners in the tournament so far and also leads the Gophers with four points on four assists. Brandt (2g-1a) and Stecklein (2a) each registered multiple points, while Cameranesi, Davis, Jalosuo and Terry have yet to find their way onto the score sheet.
Group A Preliminary Round
There were a total of six games in the preliminary round as each team played against each team in its group.
United States 4, Canada 2
The U.S. defeated Canada, 4-2, in the first game for Group A. Both Hannah Brandt and Anne Schleper recorded an assist. The U.S. led 3-1 at the end of the first period. Canada then struck back in the second to make it 3-2, but the U.S. scored with 6:31 remaining in the third period to seal the win.
Finland 3, Russia 2
Mira Jalosuo and Finland topped Russia by a final score of 3-2. Russia struck first at 3:31 of the second period, but Finland tied it up. Ten minutes later in the period, Russia took the lead back. This did not discourage Finland, though, because about three minutes later, they tied it up once again to force overtime. Finland then won in a shootout.
Canada 4, Russia 0
Kelly Terry, Sarah Davis and Canada dominated Russia with a 4-0 shutout win. The first period was the most dominant for Canada, as three of its four goals were scored; one of which was netted with just one second left in the period. In the second period, Russia changed its goaltender, but that did not stop Canada adding one more tally to make it 4-0. Russia came out stronger defensively for the third period as no goals were scored but could not muster a comeback.
United States 4, Finland 1
In the United States' second game of the tournament, the Red, White & Blue beat Finland, 4-1. Finland struck first at 10:01 into the game. The U.S. was quickly awoken by this goal, as not even thirty seconds later, Hilary Knight tied it up. Knight scored her second goal of the game with just under two minutes left in the first period, which gave the U.S. the 2-1 lead. In the second period, the U.S. scored just over a minute in, making it 3-1, before Brandt scored her first goal of the tournament to make it 4-1 with just under four minutes left in the second period.
United States 9, Russia 2
The U.S. picked up a 9-2 win over Russia in its final preliminary round game. Schleper set up the lone first-period goal before Stecklein tallied an assist to make it 2-0 about three minutes into the second period. Russia changed its goaltender after the U.S. scored its third goal of the game 5:31 into the second. Russia then scored two goals to put it within one, but the U.S. quickly struck back with two more goals, one of which was scored by Brandt and the other assisted by Schleper. The U.S. did not let up in the third period, scoring four more goals. Schleper picked up her third assist of the game and Stecklein tallied her second. Overall, it was a dominant performance by the U.S.
Canada 6, Finland 2
Canada had another dominant performance in its third game of the tournament, beating Finland 6-2. Canada led 2-1 after the first period and extended its lead to 4-1 heading into the third period. The third period saw Canada go ahead 5-1, but Finland answered just seven seconds later to make it a 5-2 game. With just under three minutes left in the game, Canada scored its final goal to secure the 6-2 win.
Quarterfinal Round
Two quarterfinal games determined the semifinal matchups as the bottom two teams from Group A and the top two teams from Group B faced off. As the top two seeds in Group A, the U.S. and Canada automatically advanced to the semifinal round.
Finland 3, Switzerland 0
Jalosuo and Finland beat Switzerland 3-0 to move on to the semifinal round. The game was scoreless until Finland scored 13:47 into the first period, and it remained 1-0 until 10:26 into the third period. The Finns added two more goals in the final 10 minutes of the game to earn the 3-0 victory.
Russia 2, Sweden 1
Russia edged host Sweden, 2-1, in the second quarterfinal game. Russia's Olga Sosina broke a 1-1 tie with 5:26 remaining as Russia rallied from a 1-0 deficit to advance to the semifinal meeting with the U.S.
Semifinal & Medal Rounds
Following the quarterfinal round, the U.S. will face Russia and Canada will take on Finland in the semifinals. The two semifinal games will take place Friday, followed by the gold and bronze medal games on Saturday.
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