The Calgary Flames & other sports related stuff

[JustKelli]

Well now that got ugly fast as referees were forced to take the whistles out of their pocket and start using them regularly both penalty boxes got pretty full for a bit there as play got really chippy and there was no love lost between teams. Canada chased the American goalie Alex Cavellini at the seven-minute mark of the second period after allowing her fourth goal. Canada's fifth goal by Sarah Nurse was absolutely gorgeous as she went top shelf and froze the American goalie. Play went on until an offside for the Americans when the play was reviewed and found that the puck had gone in the net

CAN 5 USA 0 after 2

[JustKelli]

Canada put it into cruise control in the third period allowing the lone American goal two minutes and 44 seconds into the third period preventing a total slaughter but still a lopsided victory for the Canadian team

Any win against the Americans is always that much more sweet but the real challenge comes in the elimination round where Canada and the USA are likely to meet again. Realistically only Finland can stand in the way of either team and they are the dark horse having won silver previously and relegating Canada to the bronze.

Enjoy the win ladies but do not let your head swell and lose focus because the true test is yet to come. Canada will have a slightly smoother ride in the quarterfinals but that is of little consequence at this point.

CAN 5 USA 1 final

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Coming up shortly will be what may prove to be a very entertaining and important game at the same time as Japan takes on Germany. Japan is in the thick of things with two wins and will make the quarter-finals, where will be determined at the outcome of this game coming up in just under an hour as the final round-robin game of the tournament

[JustKelli]

One observation if I may, in many of the previous posts I used journalists recaps of each game so that some knucklehead who shall not be named wouldn't go all troll crazy LOL. The point of the matter is I could out write either one of them but gave the spotlight to the so-called professionals anyway. I didn't even bother taking credit for helping them with their stats for their stories that without they would probably still be sitting at their desks Googling LOL.

End of rant, carry on lol

[JustKelli]

Well done Japan as they finish off the round robin tournament with the 2-1 win over Germany securing a spot in the quarterfinals Saturday against the USA, Canada will play Germany.

Here are the final round-robin standings and the playoff format for the quarter-finals on Saturday with four games. The ROC vs SUI is an extra exhibition game and has nothing to do with the playoffs format and is strictly for qualification purposes for the Olympics next year

[JustKelli]

It took overtime for Switzerland to upset Russia 3-2 in the quarter-final earlier today...

SUI 3 ROC 2 (overtime)

Laura Zimmermann scored at 5:29 of overtime to give Switzerland a 3-2 win in the first game of the quarter-finals. She converted a gorgeous pass from Sinja Leemann during the three-on-three sudden-death period.

ROC had scored two early goals, chased starting goalie Andrea Braendli from the Swiss crease, and tried to hold on for the win.The Swiss, though, rallied for two goals in the third and forced overtime.

"[The goalie change] was just something I thought we needed," said winning coach Colin Muller. "I had that in my mind going into the game. If something happened early and we needed to wake up the team, we're going to do it because we have total trust in both our goalies. Both of them are world-class goalies for me at this level. Saskia came in and did a great job. She gave our team a little bit of a backbone to keep the game close."

Indeed, Maurer was letter perfect after coming in at the 8:32 mark of the opening period, stopping all 28 shots she faced after the Swiss fell behind 2-0 and looked down and out.

"Yes, it was 2-0, but that's the worst lead in hockey," Swiss captain Lara Stalder rationalized. "We never stopped believing, and, to be honest, some of the veterans saw some parallels to the bronze medal in Sochi. We were 2-0 down, and so everyone knew once we got one goal, we'd just keep rolling and no one can stop us."

ROC will now go to the 5th-8th placement games, which start tomorrow, while the Swiss will play in the semi-finals on Monday. Win or lose, they'll play for a medal of some colour on Tuesday.

"We were focused on scoring goals in the third and forgot about defence," said ROC captain Olga Sosina. "We just needed to play stronger in our own end, and we took bad penalties at the wrong time. Their goalie played great. She entered the game cold and made some great saves, but we need to score on those chances."
WORLD WOMEN
ROC vs Switzerland (QF) - 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship
Yelizaveta Rodnova got the ROC off on the right foot with a goal just 1:18 after the opening faceoff. Lianna Ganeyeva’s long shot went off Braendli’s shoulder and right onto Rodnova’s stick, and she swiped the puck under the goalie.

ROC doubled their lead at 8:32 during a delated penalty situation with Merkusheva on the bench for a sixth skater. Ilona Markova came out around the goal and wristed a high shot that actually went over the head of Braendli, who was down early.

Coach Muller pulled Braendli in favour of Saskia Maurer, and although the Swiss played a little better the rest of the period they took two unnecessary penalties and never threatened Merkusheva with a tough shot.

The Swiss came out with a bit of fire in the second but nothing came of it. Phoebe Staenz had a close-in chance but fired the puck right at Merkusheva, and Stalder tried her best to get the team going. She made two fine rushes but again couldn’t test the ROC goalie. The Swiss also had a power play in the period but had trouble even getting the puck into the ROC end.

Midway through the third, Stalder was at it again. She blocked a Landysh Falyakhova shot inside her blue line and skated the length of the ice, but as she made her deke to the backhand she lost control of the puck.

The Swiss finally scored a goal midway through the third, and it was a beauty. It started with a nice pass out of their end from Noemi Ryhner to Dominique Ruegg, who went into the ROC end on a two-on-two rush with Evelina Raselli. Raselli evaded her coverage, got a pass from Ruegg, and then made a beautiful deke before slipping the puck between Merkusheva's pads.

Moments later, the Swiss went to the power play, and Raselli had two great chances in tight to tie the game, but Merkusheva held her ground and kept the score 2-1.

But the Swiss got a late power play, and after taking a timeout coach Muller pulled Maurer to create a six-on-four. On the ensuing faceoff, Lara Christen made a great play to keep the puck in. She got it to Staenz, and her long shot was tipped by Ruegg, tying the game and sending it to overtime.

"Honestly, it was our goal to win this game," said Raselli. "We knew we were in the quarter-finals, but it's not easy to be in this group. We had tough losses against Finland and ROC in the preliminary round, but we knew we just needed to win this game. That was the goal from the beginning."

[JustKelli]

The USA outshot Japan 61 to 12 in a 10-2 route in their quarter-final match earlier today. Carpenter, Knight, and Zumwinkle each had a pair of goals in a winning effort for the Americans. There were only three penalties in the entire game all three taken by the Americans.

USA 10 JPN 2

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Canada outshot Germany 52 to 3 in a 7-0 win in their quarter-final match earlier today. It didn't help that Germany took a five-minute major for an illegal hit from behind at the 31-second mark of the third which included a 20-minute misconduct but with Canada up five nothing at that point the game was pretty much out of reach. My girl Natalie Spooner had a pair in a winning effort for Canada.

CAN 7 GER 0

Here is what the semi-finals look like, the USA will play Switzerland and Canada will play the winner of Finland vs Czech Republic ( game is in the first period currently). The winners of those two semi-final matches with punch their ticket to the gold-medal game.

Update and edit: Make that a 10-2 final for USA I mistakenly said 10-0

Revise that schedule as well after Finland beat the Czechs 1-0 yesterday. Canada will play Switzerland and the USA will play Finland. Both games go today

[JustKelli]

Once again the Swiss goalkeeper Andrea Braendli stood on her head facing 65 shots and as great as her performance was her team could only muster 10 shots on the Canadian netminder due mainly to Canada stellar defense

So the stage is set for tomorrow's gold medal and bronze medal games as the USA beat Finland 3-0 and Canada beat Switzerland 4-0.

Switzerland and Finland will play first for the bronze and then the gold medal match will see the USA versus Canada

[JustKelli]

Being the friendly country that Canada is we spotted the USA two goals just to make it interesting LOL. Both goalies were brilliant in stopping some seriously beautiful scoring chances.

Poulin scores golden goal

By Andrew Podnieks | 31 AUG 2021

Marie-Philip Poulin scored the golden goal at 7:22 of the first overtime period to give Canada a 3-2 win over the United States. It was Canada's first gold medal at the Women's World Championship since 2012 and ended a run of five in a row for their adversaries.

The three-on-three unlimited OT featured end-to-end action and several great chances, but when Brianne Jenner got the puck at her blue line and saw Poulin fly up the middle, the end was near. Poulin drove into the U.S. end and fired a wicked shot over the glove of Nicole Hensley. Poulin celebrated, but the puck went in and out so qucikly that play continued. After a bit of time, though, the scorekeeper sounded the buzzer signalling the goal.

"I kind of knew that it was in, but when we heard that buzzer it was a great feeling," said Poulin, who is now the only woman to have scored three gold-medal-winning goals in her career (two Olympic gold). "To do it at home, in Calgary, was very exciting."

"Jocelyne [Larocque] made a heads-up play and rimmed it around the boards," Jenner described. "Normally, five-on-five, you kind of chip that out, but it's three-on-three, so I just got going. If you see number 29 open, you just have to put it on her stick, and she does the rest. It was a beautiful shot."

It was a game as thrilling and exciting as any played between the nations in the 31-year history of women's hockey at the IIHF. The Americans turned the table on Canada in the first, scoring the only two goals, but Canada stormed back to tie it in the second. The third was a wild affair that featured four penalties--three to Canada--but there was no fifth goal until the overtime.

"To be honest, we were pretty happy coming into the dressing room after the first period," said Jenner. "You don't want to be down 2-0, but we were playing our way. We were calm. At that point, we all believed that we could do this."

"Every time we play them, it's going to come down to a goal, to overtime. That's why it's the greatest rivalry in sports," said a disconsolate Amanda Kessel of Team USA.
WORLD WOMEN
Canada vs United States (Final) - 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship
From the opening faceoff it was clear the Americans weren’t going to be caught on their heels and weren’t going to be second to any pucks as they were in the 5-1 loss during preliminary-round play. They got the puck deep and forced Canada to turn and chase, and they initiated the forecheck, causing a headache for the Canadian defence.

After a period of caution at the start, Canada had the better of play, but only briefly and without generating any great chances. And then, in the blink of an eye, the U.S. scored first. Alex Carpenter had one whack at a loose puck in front, and when Claire Thompson didn’t check her, Carpenter got another and made no mistake.

The goal, at 9:55, marked the first time Canada had trailed since the opening period of the tournament, against Finland. Soon after, Canada took a penalty and the Americans struck again. This time Lee Stecklein took a point shot, and there was Carpenter once again to whack the puck in.

The 2-0 deficit sent a shock wave along the Canadian bench, and they had their best sequence of shifts right after. Poulin led a three-on-two into the U.S. end, giving Victoria Bach a superb chance from in close, but Hensley stood tall and made a great save on the shot.

Moments later, off the rush, Rebecca Johnston wired a shot that hit the post and bounced in behind the goalie, but Hensley covered up before it rolled over the goal line.

"We tried to focus a lot on ourselves, making little adjustments for each opponent, but with so much time off from international play, we thought the focus should be on what makes us successful," said winning coach Troy Ryan. "We got a little bit of that in the first game against the U.S. and just tried to build off that for this gold-medal game."

Canada came out in the second desperate and determined and managed to take control of the game until the final minute. The hosts got an early power play thanks to a faceoff violation by the U.S. and converted on the chance when Brianne Jenner got to Sarah Fillier’s shot and banged it in at 4:13.

They continued to press, and two minutes later were rewarded again. Poulin came up with a critical faceoff win in the American end, and Larocque’s point shot was beautifully tipped by Jamie Lee Rattray, tying the game.

"I don't think we were surprised by Canada's pushback," said U.S. coach Joel Johnson. "I felt like we just got behind it. They were clearly the better team in the second. We were pretty good in the first. You can look back at one or two faceoffs, or a missed shot on goal, or a tip, and that's the way it is."

It was all Canada much of the period, and only the fine play of Hensley kept it a tie game. She made great stops on point-blank chances from Daoust and Jenner, but just when it looked like Canada would go to the dressing room with some confidence, the Americans finished on a high note.

They swarmed Desbiens in the final minute, and although they couldn’t score they did draw a penalty to start the third with a power play. Canada killed that off to start the third, and teams exchanged power plays midway through the period without a goal. The Canadians had two great chances soon after, though, but the puck bounced over Jenner's stick on one chance from the slot and Johnston wired a shot into the logo of Hensley's sweater on the other.

Not to be outdone, Desbiens then came to Canada's rescue. She stopped Hayley Scamurra, who blew by her cover and got a great shot on goal, only to be foiled by the goalie. Moments later, Abbey Murphy had a chance in close but Desbiens held her ground.

And then, with a minute to go, Poulin fed Rattray off the rush, and her shot hit the far post and stayed out. Overtime. And the rest is history.

[GazSuze8107]

Congratulations to Canada

Another Gold Medal after their one in the Olympics Women's Soccer.

Canadian Women sure have their nation punching above its weight.

The Overtime Nation of 2021, sporting wise

'sports mad' Kelli for posting an extensive coverage here. Well Done.

[JustKelli]

What would you do if you looked up into the sky and saw this flying past you??? If it were me the first thing I would do is get the f*** out of the way LOL



Check out Robbie Maddison's latest motorcycle stunt. Just insane!!!

http://barstoolsports.com/blog/3383464/some-maniac-decided-to-hop-on-a-dirt-bike-and-do-a-bunch-of-backflips-off-a-ramp-being-flown-across-the-sky-by-a-helicopter