Finns flush with confidence facing Canada at women’s world hockey championship

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Finnish goalie Noora Raty says her country has Canada in its sights in women’s hockey.

“It’s in our heads that we don’t believe we can beat the U.S., but we believe we can beat Canada,” she said Thursday. “It’s a mental thing.”

It’s significant the Finns feel brave heading into Friday’s semifinal at the women’s world hockey championship.

Finland has never beaten Canada in women’s hockey, but games between the two countries have been close enough recently to make the Finns feel they like they’e gained ground.

“When we play Canada, their style fits better for our style,” Raty explained. “The U.S. players are more skilled. Canada is more physical.”

Raty made 40 saves in Sunday’s preliminary-round game that ended up 3-2 for Canada.

In last year’s world championship, Raty stopped 48 shots in a 2-0 loss to the Canadians in the round robin. In the semifinal rematch, the workhorse made 74 saves in a 4-1 loss that was a 2-1 game until the third period.

The Minnesota Golden Gopher took exception to Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser’s assertion after their round-robin game here that scores would be lopsided if not for her performance in goal.

“I hear (that) every time after a game, it could be a 10-0 game if I didn’t play well,” Raty said. “I don’t actually believe that. I think we can really give them a good game and challenge them.”

The U.S., winners of three straight world titles, meets Switzerland in Friday’s other semifinal.

Against Finland, Canada will have to balance patience with the knowledge that the sooner they get to Raty, the sooner they stamp out Finland’s hope of an upset.

“We’re going to get opportunities eventually,” Wickenheiser said. “You can’t get over-eager.”

Raty, meanwhile, isn’t fully healthy. She admitted earlier in the tournament she was injured when the Golden Gophers piled on her while celebrating their Frozen Four win last month.

But that hasn’t stopped Raty from stopping a high volume of pucks. She made 43 saves in a quarter-final win over Sweden.

“They really rely on the goaltender,” Wickenheiser said. “Sometimes I think we make her look good. She’s a little more patient than sometimes the shooters are.

“You’ve got to have a game of patience, but composure in tight with the puck too and look to not get in too tight and jam it into her. Pass around her and make her life difficult.”

As Canadian head coach Dan Church puts it, Canada can’t spend the first five minutes Friday dipping their toe into the water to see what the game will be like.

“You’ve got to jump in with both feet,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve played the way we wanted to in the first five minutes in any of our games thus far.

“We need to come out with a sense of urgency and execute some of the little things in the first part of the game and that will set the tone for the rest of the game.”

Canada has to cycle the puck quickly to destabilize Finland’s defence and get Raty moving.

Games are played mostly in Finland’s half of the ice when Canada is the opponent, which lulls the Canadians into an offence-only mindset.

Church doesn’t announce his starting goaltender until game day. Shannon Szabados faced 15 shots in net from the Finland on Sunday.

Finland needs to get their shot total over 20 to have a better chance at an upset. They can be opportunistic, turning a defensive lapse into a short-handed goal and also scoring a power-play goal Sunday.

It’s arguable that Finland came out of Sunday’s game with more confidence than Canada despite the loss.

The Canadians took a shocking 9-2 beating from the Americans to open the tournament Saturday and were in somewhat of a survival moved against Finland.

“They have confidence against us based on their last game,” Church acknowledged. “They were in that game and looking at some of the tweets from some of their players, they feel pretty good about their chances.

“We have to weather the storm, the first five minutes and stick to the game plan.”

Friday’s semifinal is an opportunity for Canada to get some swagger back as well as earn a berth in the gold-medal game.

“It’s a game where we’re going to focus on what we do, not what they do,” Wickenheiser said. “We can dictate the game and control it and that’s the most important thing.”

Notes: Canada is 54-0-1 all-time versus Finland. The closest Finland has ever come to a win was a 6-6 tie in 1990 … Canadian defenceman Lauriane Rougeau turned 22 on Thursday.