Sudbury's Rebecca Johnston scored a power play goal in the second period Thursday to help Canada's National Women's Team beat Finland 4-0.
The win puts Canada in the gold medal game at the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Netminder Shannon Szabados made 23 saves for her second-consecutive shutout, helping the Canadians into the final for the 18th time at women’s worlds. They will face either the United States or Germany for gold on Friday night at 7:30.
Szabados earned her 41st career win with Team Canada, moving her past Sami Jo Small for third all-time among Canadian goaltenders, and her 15th shutout tied her with Small for third place.
Finland handed Canada a shocking 4-3 defeat in preliminary-round play last Saturday, but the Canadians took the play to the Scandinavians early, although the play of Finnish netminder Noora Räty kept the game scoreless.
Canada finally broke through late in the opening frame. Sarah Potomak redirected a point shot from Halli Krzyzaniak off the side of the net, but quickly stuffed in the rebound for a 1-0 lead.
Marie-Philip Poulin doubled the advantage five minutes into the second period, outwaiting a sliding Finnish defenceman before popping the water bottle over the short-side shoulder of Räty.
Poulin played the set-up role on the 3-0 goal at 7:33, feeding Rebecca Johnston for a power-play marker. Johnston circled out from the corner and scored on the low far side. It was Canada’s first goal with the man advantage in nine chances against the Finns in the tournament.
Szabados took over from there, making a pad save off Linda Valimaki in the last minute of the middle frame before stretching to get her blocker on a Venla Hovi chance for a how-did-she-do-that stop midway through the third period.
Emily Clark capped the scoring with a shorthanded goal into an empty net with 4:29 remaining.
Szabados got progressively busier as the game went along, making five saves in the first period, seven in the second and 11 more in the third. She is the first Canadian goaltender to post back-to-back shutouts at women’s worlds since Kim St-Pierre blanked Sweden and Finland in 2009.
The U.S. and Germany square off tonight to determine who Canada will face Friday.
