2010 - CANADIAN LADIES HOCKEY TEAM DOWNS SIWTZERLAND 10-1

Photo: Toronto Sun

CANADA 10 – SWITZERLAND 1

CTV.ca - by Justin Piercy

The Canadian women's hockey team didn't set any scoring marks, but they moved to a 2-0 record on Monday with a 10-1 win over Switzerland at UBC Thunderbird Arena.

Meghan Agosta scored her fourth and fifth goals of the Olympic tournament, while Shannon Szabados made 11 saves as the Canadians kept their momentum after Saturday's record-setting 18-0 win over Slovakia.

Darcia Leimgruber's goal in the dying seconds of the second period broke the Canadian shutout streak and is the lone goal in the tournament for the Swiss, who were outshot 62-12.

Canada's next game — expected to be their biggest test so far — is Wednesday when they meet Sweden at 2:30 p.m. PT.

The Canadians buzzed around the net through the opening minutes of Monday's first period, throwing centring pass after centring pass through the crease of Swiss goaltender Florence Schelling.

The 20-year-old stood her ground, turning away nine straight shots even as the host team set up shop around her, sending 16 shots toward Schelling before the end of the first.

The Swiss mustered just two at Szabados through 20 minutes.

Holding penalty hurts Switzerland

A holding penalty to Swiss forward Stephanie Marty at 5:27 gave the Canadians even more room to operate, opening the scoring a minute into that advantage thanks to a Gillian Apps deflection of a Gina Kingsbury shot.

Rebecca Johnson's slashing call sent the teams to 4-on-4 and a shortened power-play chance for Switzerland.

Canada's Sarah Vaillancourt made it 2-0 on her second goal of the tourney, after she cleaned up a big rebound left by Johnson. Sprung from the penalty box, Johnson streaked down the ice flanked by a Swiss defender, but got a shot off, and Vaillancourt was there to bang home the loose puck.

The Swiss started the second with 35 seconds of power-play time, but Canada's Cherie Piper opened the scoring with an almost empty-net chance.

With Apps providing the screen on the top edge of the Swiss crease, Piper skated quickly across the slot and launched her shot past a diving Schelling for the 3-0 lead.

Meghan Agosta notched the next two goals to push the Canadian lead to 5-0.

Her fourth goal of the tournament came from redirecting a Catherine Ward shot from just inside the blue-line with more than half the period remaining.

A strong individual effort gave Agosta her fifth goal of the Olympics — skating in from the half-boards in the Swiss zone, she deked to her backhand and lifted the puck over Schelling's glove.
Canada's misses shutout

Shortly before the second period ended, the Swiss broke the Canadian shutout streak as Leimgruber got her stick on a rebound in front of Szabados, beating the goalie just over her outstretched blocker.

The Canadians rebounded quickly — 54 seconds into the final period, Jayna Hefford took the puck from her own blue-line, raced down the ice and potted a shorthanded goal to restore the five-goal lead.

Back-to-back individual efforts put Canada up 8-1 with just over half of the third period remaining.

Ward walked into the Swiss zone at 9:08 and blasted a slapshot over the shoulder of Schelling to make it 7-0. Nineteen seconds later, Marie-Philip Poulin blazed all the way from her own blue line and deked out Schelling with a backhand shot that rolled over her pads and into the net.
Goals by Johnson and Hayley Wickenheiser made it 10-1 and ended Schelling's night, as the Swiss goalie finished with 45 saves.

Backup netminder Dominique Slongo took over and stopped all seven shots she faced, including a Canadian 3-on-0 chance that saw Slongo deny the shot of Haley Irwin with less than three minutes remaining.