2022 Olympic Women’s Hockey: Team Canada vs Switzerland

2022 OLYMPIC WOMEN’S HOCKEY: GROUP A PRELIMINARY ROUND

CANADA (0-0-0-0) vs SWITZERLAND (0-0-0-0)

NATIONAL INDOOR STADIUM, BEIJING, CHINA

8:10 PM PST

Expectations are always high in this country when it comes to hockey, and when we’re talking about Team Canada’s women’s program, gold is always the goal. After a shootout loss to their archrivals USA in Pyongchang, South Korea in 2018, Canada has put together a team that they feel can take on all comers, and specifically the United States as they try to return to the top of the podium.

LINEUPS

TEAM CANADA

3 LAROCQUE Jocelyne

6 JOHNSTON Rebecca

7 STACEY Laura

10 FILLIER Sarah

11 SAULNIER Jill

14 FAST Renata

15 DAOUST Melodie

17 SHELTON Ella

19 JENNER Brianne

20 NURSE Sarah

21 BELL Ashton

23 AMBROSE Erin

24 SPOONER Natalie

26 CLARK Emily

27 MALTAIS Emma

28 ZANDEE-HART Micah

29 POULIN Marie-Philip

35 DESBIENS Ann-Renee

38 MASCHMEYER Emerance

40 TURNBULL Blayre

42 THOMPSON Claire

47 RATTRAY Jamie Lee

50 CAMPBELL Kristen

TEAM SWITZERLAND

3 FORSTER Sarah

7 STALDER Lara

8 QUENNEC Kaleigh

9 SIGRIST Shannon

12 RUEDI Lisa

14 RASELLI Evelina

15 ZIMMERMANN Laura

16 VALLARIO Nicole

17 CHRISTEN Lara

18 WETLI Stefanie

20 BRAENDLI Andrea

21 ENZLER Rahel

22 LEEMANN Sinja

23 BULLO Nicole

24 RYHNER Noemi

25 MULLER Alina

26 RUEGG Dominique

28 MARTI Alina

29 MAURER Saskia

39 SPIES Caroline

71 LUTZ Lena Marie

88 STAENZ Phoebe

98 MOY Keely

Canada has a very experienced team, with 13 players who have Olympic experience. Led by Captain Marie-Philip Poulin, defending World Championships and Olympic MVP Melodie Daoust, Jocelyne Larocque, Ann-Marie Desbiens, and Jamie-Lee Rattray, they hope to repeat their performance from last summer’s Worlds in Alberta, as they won gold in overtime against the USA and were dominant throughout the tournament.

Switzerland is a program that is on the rise and looking to continue to be more competitive against the game’s superpowers. Led by Alina Muller, Lara Stalder and goaltending sensation Andrea Braendli, the Swiss made it to the semifinals of the 2021 Worlds, and even more impressively, did it without Muller, who had been knocked out of the tournament with a lower body injury. They have some skilled players for sure, and this is a big test to see how they match up in the tougher of the two groups.

After this one, Canada will face a tough Finnish squad on Friday, the Russian Olympic Committee on Sunday (assuming they can get their current COVID issues under control) and then the game everyone’s waiting for: Canada vs the USA on Monday Feb 7th.

For in-depth coverage of the Olympic tournament and everything Women’s Hockey, please check out our friends at The Ice Palace. They do an amazing job of covering all aspects of the women’s game.

Enjoy the game, and Go Canada Go!