Canada’s ringette team began paving its road to gold on Monday night with a convincing 16-2 exhibition win over Team USA.
After allowing the first goal, Canada opened the floodgates halfway through the first period with four goals in six minutes. The Canadian women would go on to score 11 unanswered goals to bury the American team in the pre-tournament tilt at Memorial Gardens at the World Ringette Championship tournament.
“We’re very happy with how we played today, it was excellent,” said Canadian head coach Glen Gaudet. “They had the discipline to stay within that framework and execute all game long. When you’re beating an opponent by quite a bit, you can tend to get sloppy and we didn’t. That’s what we’re taking away from it.”
Canada gave up a late third-period goal on the only shot against that period, but that’s as close as the Americans would get to challenging the host ringette powerhouse.
After all was said and done, Canada outshot the US 77-11.
Emily Bakker, Ainsley Ferguson and Julie Primard led the charge for the red and white, scoring three goals and two assists each, while team captain Jacqueline Gaudet chipped in with a goal and four assists of her own.
In total, 10 Canadian players contributed hit the scoresheet.
“We’ll continue to stress possession of the ring and keep our feet moving,” said coach Gaudet. “But no player disappointed us today, all 22 had an outstanding game.”
But despite the dominating performance, coach Gaudet insists his team is staying grounded for the real challenge ahead: the three-time defending champion Finnish team.
Most notably, the team cited trying to limit neutral zone turnovers and giving the talented Finnish team the opportunity to counterattack.
“It’s obviously going to be a lot tougher against Finland, but we asked the team to do things that would work against Finland today and they did,” said Gaudet. “We could’ve run the score up way higher faster by taking chances, but we didn’t want to take any risks because those are potential goals for Finland.”
Canada will now switch their focus to their exhibition match on New Year’s Eve against the Finns.
Both teams attended each other’s exhibition games to see what they are up against and will face off at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens to get a more accurate look at what’s to come in the best two-out-of-three Sam Jacks series.
The Finnish team kicked off their pre-tournament warm up Sunday afternoon in a dominant 28-0 win over Team USA prior to the official opening ceremonies for the tournament.
In what is considered the sports homecoming event, Canada is attempting to retain the title for the first time since 2002. Finland has been the dominant team of the sport since then, winning the Sam Jacks trophy three consecutive times.
“Our whole focus is taking back Jacks,” Gaudet said of the tournament trophy, named after the founding father of the sport, Sam Jacks, a former North Bay parks and recreation director who created the game in 1963. “Every one of these kids grew up with (Sam's wife) Agnes being our ambassador and being at all the tournaments and all of those girls being treated like her daughter.
“It means a lot to be world champions, but it probably means more to take back the Jacks and bring it back to this country.”
The best-of-three Sam Jacks Series between Canada and Finland begins on Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
U19
In other action on Monday, Finland’s under-19 team defeated Canada 7-2 in their first exhibition match of the tournament. After entering the second period all tied at one a piece, the Finnish team went on to outscore Canada 6-1 in the final frames.
The Finns led a balanced offensive attack, outshooting Canada 57-37 with six different players getting in on the scoring action. On the Canadian side, forward Allie Marcotte scored both goals for the squad.
Both teams are gearing up to face the Swedish and American senior teams in the Presidents Pool, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 31 with Finland’s under-19 team facing Sweden’s senior team.
For more information on the tournament click HERE.
For the official Twitter account click HERE. You can also use the hashtag #2013WRC.
For the official Facebook account click HERE.
For the official YouTube site click HERE.
For a schedule of games available by live stream click HERE.
