Stellarton’s Blayre Turnbull scored twice as Canada downed Germany 5-0 in quarter-final action at the IIHF women’s world hockey championship on Thursday in Espoo, Finland.
Turnbull opened the scoring for Canada at the 7:40 mark of the first period.
She also wrapped up the scoring with the team’s fifth goal 11:32 into the third period.
After a slow start to the game, the Canadian women hit their stride, out shooting the Germans 66-9.
Turnbull said it was important to learn from the early minutes of the game.
“I think we are on the right track but we have to find a way to play a full 60 minutes,” said Turnbull in a Hockey Canada release.
“We can’t come out flat like we did in this quarter-final and we all learned our lesson. Our coaches weren’t happy after the first (period) and we really turned it around in the second and third. We understand the importance of having a great start and that’s what we’re going to do against our next opponent.”
Brianne Jenner, Natalie Spooner and Laura Stacey also scored for Canada while Brigette Lacquette added a pair of assists.
Canadian goalie Emerance Maschmeyer stopped all nine shots she faced for the shutout.
Coach Perry Pearn said the Canadian women did a great job creating traffic and making things difficult for German goalie Jennifer Harss.
“These are hard games to play,” said Pearn in the release. “Germany defended so it’s hard to get transition chances and everything you create, you have to create in the offensive zone or on special teams. I thought the way we played after the first period was good and we got lots of shots with traffic. (Harss) is a good goalie and if you don’t get traffic in front of her she’s going to stop pucks. She did her job and we did enough to find ways to score and come out with the win.”
The Canadians peppered Harss with 29 shots in the second period.
Halifax’s Jill Saulnier fired five shots at the German goalie.
Turnbull has four goals in the tournament, one behind teammate Natalie Spooner and U.S. stars Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hilary Knight, who top the championship with five.
Canada’s next opponent in the semifinal on Saturday will be Finland, who downed the Czech Republic 3-1 on Thursday.
The United States will take on Russia in Saturday’s other semfinal.
