Since my coverage of this tournament was a little waylaid by technology and you can read game recaps of today's semifinals in about a dozen other places, I'm trying something different.
Semifinal 1
USA 2, Czechia 1
- Anyone looking at the box score of the game in the future will really fail to grasp how tight this game actually was. The 11 shots on goal don't really give the Czech offense enough credit. If I'm reading the shot chart correctly, the Americans had 24 blocks. Czechia was far more threantening than the final stats would lead you to believe.
- The same could have been said about their final opening round game, which turned into a 7-1 win by Canada (we'll get to their ability to break open at game further down). Ultimately, that game will be forgotten in the face of the medal games and whatever goes down tomorrow, but that performance featured 45 minutes of Czechia proving they can go toe to toe with Canada and for me it's that bit combined with Saturday's semifinal performance that really solidifies that none of this is a fluke. Czechia has made that next step.
- And they've made that step in large part because so many of their players took it upon themselves to leave the country and play in North America, some starting in prep school, through the NCAA and USports and now in the PWHL. I really think newer women's hockey fans don't understand how quickly things have grown and changed for the Czech national team. They only made it to the top group to stay in 2015 and had never finished above 6th before their Bronze in 2022. I talk about it some in the story I did with then-captain Alena Mills as she retired after the 2023 tournament, but she graduated from Brown in 2017 and was one of the first Czech players to take that route. Fourteen players on this year's team are current, former or future NCAA players and another three are playing in the PWHL.
- I am so very excited to watch Adéla Šapovalivová at Wisconsin and Tereza Plosová at Minnesota. Both had shown how mature, calm and brilliant their game is already and they're both only going to continue to improve. Plosová's goal showed off so much patience and vision in how she picked up the puck, got herself to shooting position and placed the puck. Šapovalivová has been all over the ice all tournament. She skates fearlessly, often going against players much larger in stature and coming away with the puck.
- I really feel like the whole world was introduced to the full Abbey Murphy Experience on Saturday. It's likely she could have been called for embellishment on both penalties she drew or that the penalty shouldn't have been called at all. This is what Abbey does. It was simply unsurprising to anyone who's watched her college career. And she keeps doing it because as shown in this semifinal, it's effective and more often then not, she's successful with it. Murphy is always trying to find an advantage or an edge. She's going to get in opponents' heads whether it's with a wicked shot, chirping, contact or drawing penalties. A quick search says she had at least nine embellishment penalties in her college career. I imagine Czech fans will be talking about her and this game for awhile. It doesn't help that the referees in this one were an American and a Canadian with two Canadian lineswomen.
- I've had a lot of questions on social media about USA's lineup choices and I don't have any answers, I'm sorry. I have no idea why Kirsten Simms didn't play in the team's two biggest games so far and was rotated out. I don't agree with the Laila Edwards at defense experiment. I don't know that John Wroblewski deserves the benefit of the doubt on any of this, but for my own sanity I'm telling myself that Simms is a known quantity to him and the other players that were rotating in and out are more bubble players that the staff is deciding whether or not to put on the 30 person roster heading into the Olympics. Simms is such a massive playmaker and after a season where she took some time to adapt to a changing role at Wisconsin, she quite literally could not have been more confident in the wake of her national championship performance. I hate that she has one shot this tournament and that all that might have been built in March may have been trampled here in April. It all feels like mind games, which is both bullshit and such a tired issue with USA Hockey and the women's national team.
- Simply put, I really don't believe that there are several forwards on this roster that will be more successful than Edwards would be on offense. The narrative has been that she was moved because otherwise she might not make the roster at forward and frankly if this staff was sitting down with this pool and saw her in the bottom couple of forwards they'd have to choose among, then I don't have high hopes.
- I can't be the only person who was groaning in the lead up to Edwards' game-tying power play goal. Earlier in the tournament she told Hailey Salvian that she wasn't feeling comfortable and was passing pucks she should have shot (which is why this experiment is so dumb. If she, too, has shattered confidence and less belief in herself after this tournament I stg ...). It sure looked like Edwards was going to bypass taking the shot here when she didn't unleash the one-timer, so it was an actual dream to see her take the touch to corral the puck, fool the defender and then pick out the spot to place her shot. It's truly an absolute shame that she hasn't felt comfortable to put the puck on net like that the past two weeks.
- Both goalies in this game had me muttering about goaltenders needing to tend their goals as they went on various adventures away from their crease. Aerin Frankel and Savannah Harmon's mishandling of a puck before Frankel's net led to the Czech goal and Klára Peslarová had a couple of nervy moments as well.
Semifinal 2
Canada 8, Finland 1
- First up, this was a historic game for Canada as Marie-Philip Poulin's goal at 14:44 of the 1st period made her Canada’s all-time leading scorer at Women’s Worlds, passing Hayley Wickenheiser.
- Additionally, Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was questionable to even play in this tournament in the days leading up to it and who has played less than half of Canada's minutes in net, earned the win. It was her 22nd all-time at Women’s Worlds, which breaking the career wins record at the tournament previously held by Switzerland's Florence Schelling.
- This game ended very differently than it started and in a lot of ways paralleled Canada's win over Czechia in the final preliminary round game.
- The most important takeaway, I think, is how quickly Canada can turn a game on a dime. They scored four goals in 2:23 against Czechia on Monday to take it from a 2-1 to 6-1 game in the blink of an eye. In Saturday's semfinal, they were once again leading 2-1 and score four goals in 1:58 to completely change the tenor of the game and absolutely put it out of reach for Finland.
- The Finns scored first as Michelle Karvinen, who became her country's leading scorer at Women's Worlds during this tournament, beat Desbiens just 46 seconds in. Canada was far too casual with the puck and getting it out of the zone and Finland pounced. Canada also gave up the first goal to the US about 10 minutes into the game in the prelims. That opening stretch feels pretty crucial for the goal medal game.
- It's pretty impossible to look at Canada's scoring outbreaks and the USA's not super stable defense and feel like that will end will for the Americans. They were chaotic at best against Czechia and were lucky to eke out the win. It sure feels like they aren't in a position to withstand what Canada is capable of.
- I had a lot of not fully formed thoughts throughout both semifinals about problematic behavior and personality and what keeps a player on or off a roster. Kalty Kaltounková was notably not left off the Czechia senior team until this year, much like Canada's Daryl Watts. I don't think their stories are the same beyond that, but it has felt interestingly glaring to not talk about or ask why those decision were made in the past. Both players have made a big statement for themselves on the ice, Daryl's game misconduct penalty in this game not withstanding.
- Overall, Canada has seemed rather averse to much roster turnover in recent years and the performances of Watts and Jenn Gardiner sort of bely that maybe they should be more open to that. Both of these players have been this good for awhile now and it makes me wonder what they could have been doing with the national team if given a chance before. Of course, the argument is always that Canada did just fine without them, having won gold at Worlds and the Olympics all but one of the past few years.
- Sorry if it's confusing to keep referencing other teams and games, but I think there are so many interesting parallels here. It felt like all the individual talent and potential of Czechia came together in its last two games and one of the things that highlighted for me is how that hasn't happened in the same way for Finland. Maybe that would have happened with another game or two under their belt, but Finland just did not seem to have the same determination and belief in their ability to pull off an upset in this semifinal. Their brilliance has come in fits and starts and hasn't been able to be sustained.
- I wonder at the effect the absence of Jenni Hiirikoski and the inconsistent play of Sanni Ahola had on this team as a whole. Basically they had two pieces of foundation to build off and rely on that weren't there this time around.
(Photo: IIHF)
