BRAMPTON, Ontario (AP) — Sarah Nurse scored at 4:26 of overtime and Canada dodged its biggest women’s hockey upset, beating Sweden 3-2 on Thursday night in the world championship quarterfinals.
After scoring in regulation, Nurse took a pass from Sarah Fillier and beat goalie Emma Soderberg with a high shot in the 3-on-3 overtime.
“Some days, you feel like you don’t have it,” Nurse said. “But today wasn’t one those days. It just felt like it was going to come. We just had faith in each other and our game plan.”
Sweden forced the extra period on Hilda Svensson’s goal with 9.2 seconds left in regulation.
“That was crazy,” Nurse said. “We all took a deep breath going in overtime.”
Earlier, Aerin Frankel made 18 saves for her first national-team shutout and the United States beat Germany 3-0, and the Czech Republic edged Finland 2-1. In the semifinals, the Americans will face the Czech Republic, and Canada will meet Switzerland — a 5-1 winner over Japan in the final quarterfinal.
Blayre Turnbull also scored for Canada. Emerance Maschmeyer made 12 saves after Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 26 shots Monday in a 4-3 shootout victory over the United States in group play.
“This is probably one of the best teams that I’ve been on at managing the highs and lows,” Nurse said. “It’s something that we’ve talked about so many times. “Going into overtime, we knew that we had it.”
Lina Ljungblom also scored for Sweden, and Soderberg stopped 51 shots. Canada is 11-0 against Sweden in the tournament.
“We’re coming closer,” Swedish coach Ulf Lundberg said. “We’re working hard. … We’ve got to be proud. Canada is a really good team and we had a really good performance. The pressure was all on Canada.”
Canada has won 12 titles, three more than the United States.
In the United States’ victory, Amanda Kessel and Hannah Bilka scored power-play goals and Abbey Murphy connected short-handed. Sandra Abstreiter made 49 saves for Germany in its smallest margin of defeat against the Americans.
“Our special teams were strong today and we got the win we needed to advance to the next round,” U.S. coach John Wroblewski said. “The German goaltender was outstanding and obviously kept us to no even-strength goals, but it felt good for our team to perform well on special teams and earn the shutout.”
Kessel opened the scoring with 55.3 seconds left in the first period, beating Sandra Abstreiter off a rebound. Bilka made it 2-0 with 7:21 left in the second period on a one-timer from the right circle, and Murphy knocked in her own rebound then made it 3-0 with a short-handed goal at 7:56 of the third.
Natalie Mlynkova and Katerina Mrazova scored 49 seconds apart in the second period in the Czech Republic’s victory. Mlynkova tied it on a power play, with an assist from Mrazova, and Mrazova followed with the winner. Blanka Skodova made 41 saves.
Viivi Vainikka scored for Finland in the first period, and Anni Keisala made 20 saves.
In the finale, Rachel Enzler had two goals and an assist for Switzerland, and Lara Stadler had a goal and four assists.
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