MILAN \u2014 Marie-Philip Poulin returned \u2014 and made history \u2014 as Team Canada beat Germany 5-1 in the quarterfinals of the Olympic women\u2019s hockey tournament.<\/p>\n
Poulin missed Canada\u2019s last two games against the U.S. and Finland due to a lower-body injury sustained against the Czech Republic\u00a0on Monday. After Canada\u2019s practice on Friday, Poulin described the injury as \u201ca little tweak\u201d to her knee, but said it \u201cis getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did hurt, still hurts, but it\u2019s part of it,\u201d Poulin said Friday. \u201cHappy with where I\u2019m at today. Obviously, skated yesterday, skated today. \u2026 To get back on the ice with that team is truly special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poulin was eased back into the game with 12:41 of ice time. She made the most of her minutes, though, with a full-speed backcheck to break up a high-danger chance in the first period. Then, in the final five minutes, Poulin scored her first goal of the tournament and the 18th of her career, which tied Hockey Hall of Fame forward Hayley Wickenheiser for the most goals at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d said head coach Troy Ryan about Poulin\u2019s return. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody in this event that I\u2019d want back in our lineup more than Poulin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s next game will be the Olympic semifinals on Feb. 16.<\/p>\n
Marie-Philip Poulin\u2019s return<\/p>\n
At Friday\u2019s practice, head coach Troy Ryan said he initially anticipated Poulin would skate in a non-contact jersey. But after extended conversations with the team\u2019s medical staff, she was cleared to be a full participant. That Poulin was able to return less than a week after a heavy hit by Czech forward Krist\u00fdna Kaltounkov\u00e1 is a testament to the work Canada\u2019s captain does behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe trains like nobody else,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cSo she puts herself in these situations where she can rebound from situations like this and still find ways to contribute and have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new-look top line<\/p>\n
Canada has tinkered a lot with their lines, at times out of necessity with Poulin out, and rolled out a star-studded trio on Saturday: Daryl Watts, Sarah Fillier and Poulin.<\/p>\n
Ryan said Canada entered the tournament wanting to keep those three spread out in the top six to give the team a bit more depth at the forward position. But with the line of Emily Clark, Blayre Turnbull and Laura Stacey clicking \u2014 and producing with four goals in the tournament \u2014 Ryan felt Canada could load up its top line as the tournament transitions to the knockout stage.<\/p>\n
Before the game, Poulin called Watts and Fillier \u201cdynamic\u201d with unbelievable skill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey see each other very well on that ice,\u201d she said. \u201cGame after game, they\u2019re just getting better, and they\u2019re just getting that connection together, and it\u2019s been great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fillier has been dangerous in Milan. She\u2019s a naturally gifted distributor but also has a quick release and is tied for the co-lead in goals (3) for the Canadians.<\/p>\n
Germany makes history<\/p>\n
German goalie Sandra Abstrieter made 38 saves to keep the game relatively close. In the third period, Franziska Feldmeier made history, scoring the first-ever goal by a German against Canada in the 10th meeting between the two countries.<\/p>\n
It was the first goal that No. 2 netminder Emerance Maschmeyer allowed in a major international competition, dating back to the 2024 world championship quarterfinal versus Sweden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Marie-Philip Poulin returned \u2014 and made history \u2014 as Team Canada beat Germany 5-1 in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[1471,5,1765,2337,1766,4,2602,3105,44123,1472,44372,1581,54279],"class_list":{"0":"post-458117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-boston-fleet","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota-frost","11":"tag-montreal-victoire","12":"tag-new-york-sirens","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-ottawa-charge","16":"tag-seattle-torrent","17":"tag-toronto-sceptres","18":"tag-vancouver-goldeneyes","19":"tag-womens-hockey","20":"tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116070548989036561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458117","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=458117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}