Hat tricks from both Sarah Fillier and Brianne Jenner continued Canada’s pummelling of the opposition as they hit a double-digit goal output for the third time.
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BEIJING — Perhaps it was the shootout loss to the Americans four years ago that fuelled a re-tooled attack for the elite Team Canada.
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Perhaps it was finding a way to better utilize the blinding speed that is revolutionizing the women’s game, a skill this sublimely gifted Canadian team has in abundance.
And maybe what we’re witnessing is a team so far above the rest of the sport that there is no stopping what is becoming an historic Olympic run.
So thorough was Canada’s 11-0 destruction of Sweden in a quarter-final contest Friday night at Wukesong Sports Centre, that it cried out for superlatives.
Hat tricks from both Sarah Fillier and Brianne Jenner continued Canada’s pummelling of the opposition here as they hit a double-digit goal output for the third time in five games.
Though they have plenty of company, Fillier and Jenner are on the verge of women’s Olympic hockey history.
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Both have scored eight already, one shy of the record held by Canadian great Meghan Agosta.
“I know one thing, I wouldn’t want to play us right now,” Canadian defender Jocelyne Larocque said, summing up the relentless display with the same ease her teammates execute it.
In fairness (sympathy?) to the Swedes, who hadn’t faced Canada in the Olympics since 2010, they didn’t belong on the same ice as a team that has now outscored its opponents 44-5 through five games.
The latest mismatch can be blamed in part on the IOC which expanded the Olympic tournament to 10 teams, meaning that the quarter-final round was set up for this type of humiliation.
Canada’s first look at a ‘B’ group opponent certainly wasn’t a shining moment for the sport, but it allowed the pre-tournament favourites to easily advance to Monday’s semi-final against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
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Skating circles around Sweden, a new look and a new style has certainly elevated Team Canada’s dominance to a next and perhaps never-before-seen level.
The team is lightning fast and not just in skating speed. It’s also scoring at an historic rate. And it’s not lost on the Canadian players who are making it happen.
“I feel like the women’s game is evolving and we’re getting better each and every year and I’ve been a part of this for a long time,” said forward Rebecca Johnston, who is competing in her fourth Olympics.
“I’ve definitely noticed the improvement our national team has had. We’re getting faster. We’re more skilled. The young kids are coming up and really pushing the vets.”
And the rest of the world — perhaps even the rival Americans — don’t appear to be keeping up.
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Under general manager Gina Kingsbury and coach Troy Ryan there has been an emphasis on pushing the pace of the game. It’s not just high-speed skating, either. It’s aggressive on the forecheck and swiftly moving the puck up ice from any zone.
“I feel we are a million times better with the transition part of the game,” Johnston said. “We make it hard for other teams to catch up.”
The Canadians have zero interest in easing up, keeping the offensive humming while keeping momentum.
Thus, the offensive output is bordering on silly. After two periods on Friday, Canada had more goals (nine) than the Swedes had shots on goal (six).
By the end of the night, the shot clock was equally as tilted: Canada 56, Sweden 11.
The 44 goals in five games is nine more than they scored in 2014 and 2018 combined.
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“Maybe a bit, to be honest,” Ryan said when asked if the prolific scoring has surprised him at all. “The part that I like with the way we are scoring is we’re not getting away from the offence we like to (run.) We haven’t had individual thinking in our offence, which is good to see.”
Indeed, Fillier and Jenner have plenty of company on the scoresheet with an offence as prolific as women’s hockey has ever seen. Sarah Nurse and captain Marie-Philip Poulin, for example, had four assists each on Friday.
“I don’t think we set out every game to hit double-digit goals,” Fillier said. “We’re playing within our system and our system is to produce offence.
“We’re just burying the puck at a pretty efficient rate.”
While Canada was never going to be a threat to lose to Sweden — and in fact was favoured by 7.5 goals on one betting site — they inflicted their dominance far more emphatically than their rivals from the U.S. did in its quarter-final.
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The Americans advanced with a 4-1 win over the Czechs but were in a battle most of the way, trailing 1-0 after the first period and only taking its first lead of the game six minutes into the third.
The next level Canadians? They went through a stretch on Friday where they scored five goals on six shots in a seven-minute span.
Dominance might not even do it justice.
“The confidence we have, the well-rounded depth we have … everyone can score,” Johnston said. “We can score in different ways, from around the net, from different angles, point shots.
“When you have that versatility, it’s difficult to defend.”
Near impossible in the case of the Swedes and just about anyone else the Canadians have faced.
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Too fast, too skilled: Team Canada women's hockey crush Sweden in Olympic quarter-final - National Post
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