International
Weekend Watch: Basketball championships, Winter Universiade highlight eventful weekend
The Canadian women’s hockey team, made up of U SPORTS players from across the country, opened the 29th Winter Universiade with a commanding 10-0 win over China to begin play on Friday afternoon in Krasnoyarsk.
Canada finished the game with a whopping 91-3 shots on goal advantage (32-2 in the first, 26-1 in the middle frame and 33-0 in the final period) as Maude Lévesque-Ryan (Ottawa) earned the first shutout of the Universiade. China’s netminder Jiang Yue was kept busy with 81 saves as she kept her team in the game after two period before the floodgates opened as Canada erupted for six in the third.
“Our start today, obviously we couldn’t ask for anything more," said Canada’s head coach Stacey Colarossi (Laurentian). "We held them to three shots and that gave us opportunities to play in the offensive zone.”
Women's Hockey head coach Stacey Lee Colarossi reflects on a successful start to @FISU Winter Universiade after #uCAN defeated China 10-0. pic.twitter.com/04zRMKZkgu
— U SPORTS Team Canada (@USPORTSIntl) March 1, 2019
Among the 10 goals scored, Canada was led by assistant captain Mélodie Bouchard (Ottawa), who scored a hat-trick in the victory. Katryne Villeneuve (Moncton) with two goals, Kassidy Nauboris (UOIT), Morgan McCann (Laurentian), Leah Bohlken (Saskatchewan), team captain Kaitlin Willoughby (Saskatchewan) and Lauren Straatman (Toronto) rounded out the scoring.
“The girls made good plays to me and I scored three goals," said a humble Bouchard, named Canada's Player of the Game. "It just doesn’t matter to me as long as we play well, that’s the only thing that matters.”
This was only the third day the team has been together as a complete unit on the ice with only two practices in Krasnoyarsk prior to the first game.
“For us, we have to focus on moving forward," said Colarossi. "We are now getting ready for the next game and making sure we are taking care of all three zones.”
Canada, won the first three Universiade women’s hockey tournaments (2009, 2011, 2013) and has been a silver medallist the last two times (2015, 2017). The team will have a day off to enjoy the Opening Ceremonies on Saturday before getting back on the ice against Japan on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET) in their second game of the tournament.
Follow Team Canada on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @USPORTSIntl and use the hashtag #uCAN