Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark and Marie-Philip Poulin each scored, and Canada outshot Finland 23-19 to post a 3-1 win on Saturday in exhibition women’s hockey action at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont.
Renata Fast chipped in with two assists for Team Canada, which is focused on winning the women’s world hockey championship, scheduled April 5-16 in Brampton, Ont.
The teams, getting ready for worlds, missed a number of scoring opportunities and the power-play units looked like they might need some additional work, too, as Canada went 0-for-5 and Finland was 0-for-3.
The teams were scoreless after the first period and Canada led 1-0 heading into the third period.
Emilia Vesa scored for Finland.
“The game didn’t go necessarily how we would want it to go, but when we look back on it now, there is a lot of good things that happened,” said head coach Troy Ryan.
Ann-Renée Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer split goaltending duties for Canada. Desbiens turned aside all seven shots she faced, while Maschmeyer stopped 11-of-12.
“It was a good exhibition game for us in the way Finland came out strong and played us physically. It was a style of game we haven’t seen the past few years and it forced us to keep grinding and putting pucks on net,” said Desbiens. “We had to stick with it for the full 60 minutes and we got better as the game went on.”
Canada will open its quest for a third straight women’s world hockey championship gold medal against Switzerland on Wednesday at the CAA Centre.
WATCH | Brianne Jenner leads Canada past U.S. for 2022 world title:
Oakville, Ont.’s Brianne Jenner scored both of Canada’s goals en route to a 2-1 victory over their international rivals in the tournament final.
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