Wednesday is a big day for the Canadian women’s soccer and hockey teams | CBC Sports

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Here’s what to know about the big games coming up Wednesday for the Canadian women’s soccer and hockey teams:

Soccer: SheBelieves Cup finale

Canada still has a chance to win the four-team tournament in the southern United States, but it needs a lot of things to go its way on the final day.

The SheBelieves Cup is a straight round-robin. Everyone plays each other once, and the team with the best record is crowned champion. This year’s edition is an important tune-up for the Women’s World Cup, as all four participants — the world No. 1-ranked United States, No. 6 Canada, No. 9 Brazil and No. 11 Japan — will compete in the biggest event in women’s soccer this summer in Australia and New Zealand.

Canada heads into the final day of the SheBelieves Cup in second place after losing to the U.S. 2-0 last Thursday in Orlando, Fla., then defeating Brazil 2-0 on Sunday in Nashville on goals by Vanessa Gilles and Evelyne Viens. The Americans sit atop the standings at 2-0 after blanking Japan 1-0 on Sunday. Brazil has the same 1-1 record as Canada but drops to third place on goal differential. Japan is out of it at 0-2.

To have any chance at winning the Cup, Canada must defeat Japan on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET in Frisco, Texas, then have Brazil upset the U.S. at 7 p.m. ET. In that scenario, the championship would come down to a tiebreaker, starting with goal differential. The Americans have a healthy lead at plus-3, with Canada even and Brazil minus-1.

Canada’s title odds aren’t great, but a win over Japan would at least give the team some much-needed positivity as it prepares for the World Cup. The reigning Olympic champions are embroiled in an increasingly bitter labour dispute with Canada Soccer that could trigger another strike during the critical April window for international matches. If a deal isn’t worked out with the national governing body by then, Wednesday’s match might be the team’s last chance to play a truly competitive contest before the World Cup.

Hockey: Rivalry Series deciding game

Any time the Canadian and U.S. women’s hockey teams square off, you can bet it’ll be close. Since 2011, all but one of the archrivals’ eight meetings in the world-championship final have been decided by one goal, including five that went to overtime. All three of their Olympic gold-medal clashes in that span were won by the slimmest of margins, including one in OT and another in a shootout.

Given that history, it was surprising to see this season’s Rivalry Series start off as a rout. The Americans won the first three games of the cross-border exhibition set in November, earning a pair of one-goal (of course) wins in Kamloops, B.C., before a 4-2 victory in Seattle. But Canada rebounded with back-to-back 3-2 victories in December near Las Vegas and in Los Angeles before knotting the series at three wins apiece last night with a stunning 5-1 blowout in Trois-Rivières, Que. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored late in the third to become just the fifth player to reach 200 points with the Canadian women’s team.

That sets the stage for the series-deciding game Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET in Laval, Que. While it may not carry the prestige of an Olympic or world-championship final, these teams always relish the chance to beat each other for a title. So it should be another intense — and, yes, close — game.