Worlds wrap-up — Podcast recommendations and odds and ends — Must-click women’s hockey links
The IX: Hockey Friday with Eleni Demastihas, Sept. 9, 2022
Happy Hockey Friday everyone, I hope you got to rest a little this long weekend! You know who didn’t rest? The teams at Worlds. Let me tell you how the end of the tournament shook out.
Continue reading with a subscription to The IX
Get unlimited access to our exclusive coverage of a varitety of women’s sports, including our premium newsletter by subscribing today!
Already a member?
Login
By now you probably know that Canada won gold, but it’s important to note this was the first time they’ve won back-to-back World Championship gold medals in eighteen years. It’s a huge deal for them to see this sustained success across the board and against the United States during the games it matters most. Yes, the US won the preliminary round game, but with a medal on the line, Canada came out victorious.
The gold medal game, like most games between the US and Canada, was gritty and tough. It was also a little ugly, which almost never favors the United States. The American team still has a tendency to find themselves in the box, despite otherwise playing fairly well this tournament. It didn’t bite them until the third penalty of the game, but you had to see it coming. By the time Hannah Brandt took that third penalty, Canada was already up a goal thanks to a great play by Brianne Jenner. She was also the one to pot the power play goal that would end up being the game-winner. The Americans managed a power play goal of their own near the end of the second period, but were unable to tie the game in the third.
The two other biggest stories of this tournament turned out to be Czechia and Finland, but probably not in the ways you would have expected. Finland first lost 2-1 to Czechia in overtime, which was already a bit of a surprising result. This Czechia team is young and fast, and Finland had seemed slow through their first few games. I think this is really the game where it fell apart for Finland. Losing to the United States and Canada is tough but not a new experience for Finland, and shouldn’t have been enough to unravel their quest for a medal. Losing to Czechia here really hurt them. They went on to play in the fifth-place game, missing a shot at the podium for the first time ever.
Finland played Japan in the fifth-place game, and had already beaten them earlier in the tournament pretty soundly. This game was different. Finland put sixty one shots on net, which should have been more than enough to win the game. Twenty year old goaltender Miyuu Masuhara stopped all sixty one shots. She’s also only 5’2, proving that sometimes structure and mechanics can take you just as far, or further, than size in net. Japan ultimately won the game in a shootout off of goals from Remi Koyama and Haruka Toko—a huge result for Japan, but an equally huge result for Finland, who went home in sixth place, their lowest finish in the history of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Czechia not only advanced to the bronze medal game against Switzerland, they won it, bringing home a medal for the first time ever.
The Next, a 24/7/365 women’s basketball newsroom
The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.
Readers of The IX now save 50% on their subscription to The Next.
A couple of podcast recommendations this week, with a theme—goalies.
Checkin’ Tendies is a women’s hockey podcast hosted by goalie Tera Hofmann, Cor (@arsonandhockey on Twitter) and J Gray (@jgray_5 on Twitter). They recently released their second episode, which covered Worlds and the Montreal Force announcement.
More Than 5% is a women’s sports podcast hosted by Toronto Six goalie Carly Jackson and Zoe Hicks, her baseball teammate (yes, they both play baseball!). It’s not live yet, but I wanted to give you all a heads up so you can set a reminder for September 29th, when it does debut.
Some fun little tidbits of other news:
Whitecaps defender Sidney Morin was just hired as a pro scout for the Carolina Hurricanes (NHL).
My colleague Dan Rice has reported that the Connecticut Whale are close to signing former Boston Pride mainstays Tori Sullivan (F) and Mallory Soulioutis (D). I’ve heard from someone close to the Whale that they expect to sign captain Shannon Turner as well, which is huge because it appeared last season would be her final lap around the rink. Maybe the increased cap has allowed her to continue her career. She appeared to hint at her return on Twitter this week as well.
The PHF released their 2022-2023 Bylaws, which contain a lot more information than can be reasonably contained in a newsletter like this. Luckily, Angélica Rodríguez at The Ice Garden has it covered and you can read her recap here.
Ian Kennedy wrote a great in-depth look at some of the best young players on the international stage, which you can read here.
The Force logo is super cute on animals. (This is a little older than a week but it needed to be included.)
The Beauts have partnered with the Hilbert College Hawks in their inaugural NCAA DIII season.
This year’s 2022 USA Hockey Hall of Fame class includes everyone’s favorite pair of twins: Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando. I am therefore obligated to leave you with this as a reminder of Jocelyne’s brightest moment in the USA jersey:
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
