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<\/a><\/p>\n\n Swiss goalie Saskia Maurer made 51 saves against Canada. (Alexander Nemenov \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Saskia Maurer alone on an island<\/p>\n
Maurer, thrust into action for the second game in a row, can hold her head high. Maurer was outshot 30-3 after two periods, yet the only goal she allowed was Spooner\u2019s tally off Marie-Philip Poulin\u2019s rebound.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was unreal,\u201d Spooner said.<\/p>\n
Canada peppered her persistently, yet she turned virtually everything aside, from deflections, shots through traffic, point-blank chances and shots off the rush.<\/p>\n
Maurer is the only reason this was not a bigger rout, although there was only so much she could take as she allowed three in the third. Maurer finished with 51 saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cTired,\u201d Mauer said, smiling, when asked how she was feeling. \u201cBut we knew Canada was one of the best teams in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debut(s) delayed<\/p>\n
After Thursday\u2019s game was postponed, the Canadians held a closed practice at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena to mimic their late start times in the preliminary round. General manager Gina Kingsbury said the practice was closed to give the players 24 hours to decompress after hearing their Olympic debut would be delayed until Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the game, players shrugged off the schedule changes, with Turnbull calling it \u201cjust a little bump in the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
It helps that Canada has 16 players on the roster who had to wear masks during a preliminary round game against Russia at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. That game was delayed over an hour due to COVID-19 test processing. Russian players removed their masks after the first two periods once the tests showed no players were positive. The Canadians kept their masks on and won 6-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the girls who were at the COVID Olympics as well have seen many things like this before,\u201d said Olympic rookie Jennifer Gardiner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you look at our leader, Marie-Philip Poulin, obviously, she is the way she is because she shows up every single day at her best, no matter what. So, I think not letting something like this get in the way of that, and just moving forward with what we do have is going to be really important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emerance Maschmeyer gets the nod<\/p>\n
It was perhaps a bit surprising that Maschmeyer, Canada\u2019s No. 2 goalie, got the start on Saturday. But Ryan said after the game that it was always his plan to start Maschmeyer against Switzerland.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot necessarily the plan to play her in Game 1,\u201d Ryan said, laughing. \u201cBut we had to adjust a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game was just Maschmeyer\u2019s third Olympic start and her first major international game since the 2024 women\u2019s world championship; she was injured last season in the PWHL and missed the 2025 tournament.<\/p>\n
In her last start for Team Canada at the December Rivalry Series, Maschmeyer gave up five goals against Team USA. She looked better on Saturday, though she was barely tested against the fifth-best team in the world.<\/p>\n
It stands to reason that we\u2019ll get our first look at Canada\u2019s No. 1 goalie Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens on Monday.<\/p>\n
Natalie Spooner\u2019s role<\/p>\n
It took just 27 minutes for Spooner to prove why she deserved a spot on Canada\u2019s Olympic roster. She\u2019s had a slow start to the 2025-26 PWHL season, with three goals in 16 games, but Canada still saw her as a valuable veteran to bring to Milan in a Swiss Army Knife-type role.<\/p>\n
Spooner started the game as the 13th forward, a role she accepted with an open mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy to play at 13th forward,\u201d Spooner told The Athletic. \u201cIt is my fourth Olympics. Every time I get a chance, I will go out and be an impact player.\u201d<\/p>\n
She took several five-on-five shifts on the top line with Poulin and Laura Stacey, and assumed her typical net-front role on the first power-play unit. It was in that role where Spooner scored her first goal of the tournament after jamming home a rebound in the blue paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know she can play a little bit anywhere,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cHonestly, on any power-play unit in the world, Spooner could be a net front player on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just awesome to see her get rewarded with a typical Spooner goal in the net front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daryl Watts\u2019 big night<\/p>\n
Saturday night had a little bit of everything for Watts: She made her Olympic debut, scored her first-ever goal at the tournament and took a penalty for defending Spooner.<\/p>\n
If you ask Watts, the latter was one of the most important moments of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a dirty cross check to her back and Spooner is just the sweetest girl in the world,\u201d Watts said after the game. \u201cIt really upset me to see her get cross-checked like that. I wanted to stick up for her and grab the girl\u2019s jersey and say, \u2018Hey, what are you doing?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cShe punched me in the head and I got a penalty, but it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not to be overlooked, Watts\u2019 goal was the perfect example of what she can bring to Team Canada. Her impact at five-on-five is exceptional and she\u2019s one of the game\u2019s best offensive players. Watts loves to shoot the puck and often makes it count. This time, it was a perfectly placed shot that beat Maurer clean.<\/p>\n
Watts\u2019 line with Sarah Fillier and Sarah Nurse has the potential to be one of Canada\u2019s best. And when Ryan started tinkering with his forward lines, it was the only one to go untouched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 After a 48-hour delay due to a norovirus outbreak on the Finnish women\u2019s national team, Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[1471,5,1765,2337,1766,4,2602,3105,44123,1472,44372,1581,54279],"class_list":["post-450922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-boston-fleet","tag-hockey","tag-minnesota-frost","tag-montreal-victoire","tag-new-york-sirens","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-ottawa-charge","tag-seattle-torrent","tag-toronto-sceptres","tag-vancouver-goldeneyes","tag-womens-hockey","tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116032915179046661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}