2011-12 National Women's Team

NATIONAL WOMEN'S TEAM OPENS 12 NATIONS TOURNAMENT WITH WIN OVER SWISS

VIERUMÄKI, Finland - The Canadian women's hockey team opened the 12 Nations Tournament on Wednesday with a 16-0 win over Switzerland.

Veteran Jayna Hefford of Kingston, Ont., led Canada with a hat trick, while Montreal's Jesse Scanzano, Haley Irwin of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Tessa Bonhomme of Sudbury, Ont., each added a pair of goals.

Montreal's Caroline Ouellette, Meghan Agosta of Ruthven, Ont., Gillian Apps of Unionville, Ont., Jennifer Wakefield of Pickering, Ont., Jocelyne Larocque of Ste. Anne, Man., Mallory Deuce of London, Ont., and Bobbi Jo Slusar of Swift Current, Sask., also scored. Goaltender Christina Kessler of Mississauga, Ont., earned the shutout.

Half of the Canadian goals were scored in the third period.

"We actually played our best period in the third period,'' Canadian head coach Dan Church said. "We worked really hard too and they played their third goaltender.''
Church didn't want bad habits to creep into Canada's game once the win was well in hand and he emphasized that during the second intermission.

"I definitely delivered a message in between the second and the third that I thought our effort level had dropped off in a couple of key areas that we talked about and to the players' credit, they responded to that in the third period, backchecking and battling for pucks,'' Church said. "Our veteran players led by example and were some of the best players on the ice tonight.''

Canada took only 10 forwards to Finland, so they are getting a lot of ice time.

"They're cycling through quite quickly up front, but no one was really labouring at all,'' Church said. "That's evidence that they've put in some hard work in the summer and we've had a couple of hard workouts here too before we got on the ice.''

The 12 Nations is a new tournament in the women's hockey schedule. The International Ice Hockey Federation wants to close the large gaps in skill between countries by providing more competitive opportunities. It's hoped federations will put more resources into female hockey and that players will be motivated to improve their skills.

Eight countries, Canada, the U.S., Finland, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia and Japan, are facing each other in Finland, while France, Germany, Norway and the Czech Republic are playing in a mini-tournament simultaneously in Courcheval, France.

Canada meets Russia on Thursday before facing Slovakia on Saturday and world champion U.S. on Sunday. Church said Liz Knox of Stouffville, Ont., will start in net against Russia.

Penalties:
04:23 SUI 14 Phoebe Stanz (Hooking)
05:35 CAN 15 Jesse Scanzano (Too Many Men)
10:05 CAN 20 Jennifer Wakefield (Slashing)
14:15 SUI 9 Stephanie Marty (Hooking)
15:48 SUI 20 Kathrin Lehmann (Cross Checking)

Penalties:
06:32 SUI 4 Jana Heuscher (Tripping)
14:19 CAN 13 Caroline Ouellette (Hooking)
14:54 CAN 20 Jennifer Wakefield (Penalty Shot)
18:07 CAN 16 Jayna Hefford (Slashing)
18:20 CAN 20 Jennifer Wakefield (Slashing)

Penalties:
01:50 CAN 14 Mallory Deluce (Holding)
03:10 SUI 22 Sandra Thalmann (Tripping)