Canada scored four second-period goals in an 8-1 semi-final rout of Finland, advancing to a gold-medal rematch with the Americans at the 2025 Women's Worlds.
photo: PHOTO: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / MATT ZAMBONIN
With four second-period goals in under two minutes, Canada thumped Finland 8-1 to advance to the gold medal game of the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship. The defending Women’s Worlds champs will face the archrival Americans in Sunday’s final, while the Finns will battle the host Czechs for bronze.
"It's amazing," said Canadian defender Claire Thompson. "It's what we work towards. It's our goal every time we come to the tournament. We're excited to come out tomorrow and compete hard."
Recording a goal and an assist in this semi-final win, captain Marie-Philip Poulin broke Hayley Wickenheiser’s all-time Canadian scoring record (86 points) at the Women’s Worlds as she hit 88 points. The Quebec-born superstar leads this tournament with 11 points (4+7=11).
"It's amazing and so well-deserved," said linemate Laura Stacey. "I think you can see her work ethic day in and day out. To see her break that record is pretty special. I think it's countless hours, countless years of hard work, and obviously she's the best to ever do it, so we're pretty lucky to have her on our team."
Daryl Watts scored a pair of goals, and Thompson had a goal and two assists. Danielle Serdachny notched a goal and an assist, and Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark and Sarah Nurse also scored for Canada. Stacey and Jennifer Gardiner chipped in two assists apiece.
Captain Michelle Karvinen had the lone goal for the Finns. Czechia downed Finland 4-2 in round-robin play. Karvinen left the game in the third period after taking a high hit from Watts, who got a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
A disappointed Noora Tulus reflected: "Honestly, I don’t really know what happened. We were too easy to score on. We need to check it afterward and get better. But we also need to take all the good things we did today. Tomorrow’s coming fast and we need to look forward."
Final shots favoured Canada 34-20. Goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens also set a new record with 22 all-time Women’s Worlds wins, surpassing Switzerland’s Florence Schelling (21). Czech goalie Klara Peslarova equalled Schelling’s old mark with her two shutouts versus Switzerland.
Poulin hailed Desbiens' accomplishment: "She had a little break a couple years back and to see the fire in her eyes now that she’s back, there’s no better person it could happen to, and I’m not surprised [she’s got the record]. She’s a warrior, she fights. She’s coming back from injury, she wanted to be here, and she put that work in to be here."
Finland's Emilia Kyrkko, meanwhile, got her second tournament start. The St. Cloud State netminder relieved starter Sanni Ahola in the 5-0 group-stage loss to Canada.
For the North American rivals, the looming gold medal game is also a chance to make a statement ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Canada is the defending Olympic champion, having topped the U.S. 3-2 in the 2022 final in Beijing. The Canadians beat the U.S. 6-5 for Women's Worlds gold last year on Serdachny's overtime winner.
"Any time there's a medal on the line, it's a fierce battle," Thompson said. "Every time we play the Americans, they give us their best. And we're just hoping that we've been able to build each and every game this tournament and come out an even better team than we showed them in the previous game."
Courtesy of its veterans, Finland at least got off to a good start here, drawing first blood at 0:46. Defender Ronja Savolainen stopped an Ambrose clearing attempt at the left point and sent the puck down to Tulus. The New York Sirens forward found Karvinen going to the net to deflect the puck past Desbiens.
Canada struck back at 2:28. With the Canadians buzzing around Suomi’s net, Gardiner hammered the puck from the centre point and Ambrose pinched in to fire the puck into Kyrkko's gaping cage.
The Finns tried to counterpunch on a 2-on-1 with about eight minutes left in the opening stanza. Elisa Holopainen got the puck past Poulin at the Finnish blue line and was off to the races, but couldn’t finish it off with Emilia Vesa.
Poulin gave Canada its first lead with her record-setting goal at 14:44, converting a cross-ice feed from Gardiner with a one-timer from the hash mark.
Watts put Canada up 3-1 at 17:18 with great persistence. After she cut to the net and failed to beat the goalie with a backhand deke, the Toronto Sceptres ace got two more cracks at it, capitalizing on a Finnish defensive miscue to bank the puck in off Kyrkko from below the goal line. Finnish coach Juuso Toivola challenged the play for offsides, but video review proved otherwise, and his team got a minor for delay of game.
That was costly. A minute into the power play, Watts waltzed into the high slot and flung a laser under the bar for her fourth goal of her first Women's Worlds.
Brianne Jenner found Clark back-door at 18:30 for a 5-1 lead. And Serdachny turned it into a rout, hammering home a fat rebound at 19:16.
Thompson put that four-goal explosion in the context of a minor penalty to Sarah Fillier at 13:41, which enabled the Finns to apply PP pressure: "I think we had a huge penalty kill. Ann-Renee made some incredible saves, and we were able to build off the momentum of that penalty kill and then start putting pucks in the back of the net like we do so well."
Even after Watts was ejected, the Finns couldn't muster any offence. But Canada sure could. Thompson jumped in to score shorthanded on an Emma Maltais set-up at 4:56. Nurse made it 9-1 at 11:25 off a Serdachny feed from behind the net.
The last semi-final meeting between these nations saw Canada win 4-0 in 2017, with goalie Shannon Szabados earning a 23-save shutout.
Finland’s record against Canada drops to two wins and 27 losses. The Finns won 4-3 in the 2017 group stage in Plymouth, Michigan and 4-2 in the 2019 semi-finals in Espoo, Finland. The latter result marked the first time a European team had ever beaten a North American team in the Women’s Worlds playoffs.
Savolainen played a big role in both those upsets, scoring the late winner in 2017 and adding two goals and an assist in 2019. The 27-year-old Ottawa Charge defender is Finland’s leading scorer in Ceske Budejovice (3+2=5), suiting up for the semis despite leaving after a centre-ice collision in the 3-2 quarter-final win over neighbouring Sweden.
"It's amazing," said Canadian defender Claire Thompson. "It's what we work towards. It's our goal every time we come to the tournament. We're excited to come out tomorrow and compete hard."
Recording a goal and an assist in this semi-final win, captain Marie-Philip Poulin broke Hayley Wickenheiser’s all-time Canadian scoring record (86 points) at the Women’s Worlds as she hit 88 points. The Quebec-born superstar leads this tournament with 11 points (4+7=11).
"It's amazing and so well-deserved," said linemate Laura Stacey. "I think you can see her work ethic day in and day out. To see her break that record is pretty special. I think it's countless hours, countless years of hard work, and obviously she's the best to ever do it, so we're pretty lucky to have her on our team."
Daryl Watts scored a pair of goals, and Thompson had a goal and two assists. Danielle Serdachny notched a goal and an assist, and Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark and Sarah Nurse also scored for Canada. Stacey and Jennifer Gardiner chipped in two assists apiece.
Captain Michelle Karvinen had the lone goal for the Finns. Czechia downed Finland 4-2 in round-robin play. Karvinen left the game in the third period after taking a high hit from Watts, who got a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
A disappointed Noora Tulus reflected: "Honestly, I don’t really know what happened. We were too easy to score on. We need to check it afterward and get better. But we also need to take all the good things we did today. Tomorrow’s coming fast and we need to look forward."
Final shots favoured Canada 34-20. Goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens also set a new record with 22 all-time Women’s Worlds wins, surpassing Switzerland’s Florence Schelling (21). Czech goalie Klara Peslarova equalled Schelling’s old mark with her two shutouts versus Switzerland.
Poulin hailed Desbiens' accomplishment: "She had a little break a couple years back and to see the fire in her eyes now that she’s back, there’s no better person it could happen to, and I’m not surprised [she’s got the record]. She’s a warrior, she fights. She’s coming back from injury, she wanted to be here, and she put that work in to be here."
Finland's Emilia Kyrkko, meanwhile, got her second tournament start. The St. Cloud State netminder relieved starter Sanni Ahola in the 5-0 group-stage loss to Canada.
For the North American rivals, the looming gold medal game is also a chance to make a statement ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Canada is the defending Olympic champion, having topped the U.S. 3-2 in the 2022 final in Beijing. The Canadians beat the U.S. 6-5 for Women's Worlds gold last year on Serdachny's overtime winner.
"Any time there's a medal on the line, it's a fierce battle," Thompson said. "Every time we play the Americans, they give us their best. And we're just hoping that we've been able to build each and every game this tournament and come out an even better team than we showed them in the previous game."
Courtesy of its veterans, Finland at least got off to a good start here, drawing first blood at 0:46. Defender Ronja Savolainen stopped an Ambrose clearing attempt at the left point and sent the puck down to Tulus. The New York Sirens forward found Karvinen going to the net to deflect the puck past Desbiens.
Canada struck back at 2:28. With the Canadians buzzing around Suomi’s net, Gardiner hammered the puck from the centre point and Ambrose pinched in to fire the puck into Kyrkko's gaping cage.
The Finns tried to counterpunch on a 2-on-1 with about eight minutes left in the opening stanza. Elisa Holopainen got the puck past Poulin at the Finnish blue line and was off to the races, but couldn’t finish it off with Emilia Vesa.
Poulin gave Canada its first lead with her record-setting goal at 14:44, converting a cross-ice feed from Gardiner with a one-timer from the hash mark.
Watts put Canada up 3-1 at 17:18 with great persistence. After she cut to the net and failed to beat the goalie with a backhand deke, the Toronto Sceptres ace got two more cracks at it, capitalizing on a Finnish defensive miscue to bank the puck in off Kyrkko from below the goal line. Finnish coach Juuso Toivola challenged the play for offsides, but video review proved otherwise, and his team got a minor for delay of game.
That was costly. A minute into the power play, Watts waltzed into the high slot and flung a laser under the bar for her fourth goal of her first Women's Worlds.
Brianne Jenner found Clark back-door at 18:30 for a 5-1 lead. And Serdachny turned it into a rout, hammering home a fat rebound at 19:16.
Thompson put that four-goal explosion in the context of a minor penalty to Sarah Fillier at 13:41, which enabled the Finns to apply PP pressure: "I think we had a huge penalty kill. Ann-Renee made some incredible saves, and we were able to build off the momentum of that penalty kill and then start putting pucks in the back of the net like we do so well."
Even after Watts was ejected, the Finns couldn't muster any offence. But Canada sure could. Thompson jumped in to score shorthanded on an Emma Maltais set-up at 4:56. Nurse made it 9-1 at 11:25 off a Serdachny feed from behind the net.
The last semi-final meeting between these nations saw Canada win 4-0 in 2017, with goalie Shannon Szabados earning a 23-save shutout.
Finland’s record against Canada drops to two wins and 27 losses. The Finns won 4-3 in the 2017 group stage in Plymouth, Michigan and 4-2 in the 2019 semi-finals in Espoo, Finland. The latter result marked the first time a European team had ever beaten a North American team in the Women’s Worlds playoffs.
Savolainen played a big role in both those upsets, scoring the late winner in 2017 and adding two goals and an assist in 2019. The 27-year-old Ottawa Charge defender is Finland’s leading scorer in Ceske Budejovice (3+2=5), suiting up for the semis despite leaving after a centre-ice collision in the 3-2 quarter-final win over neighbouring Sweden.
Canada v. Finland - Semi-final #2 - 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship
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