PLYMOUTH, Mich.— Minutes earlier, Sarah Potomak and the rest of Team Canada had punched their ticket to the gold-medal game of the IIHF Women’s World Championship, with a dominant 4-0 win over Finland.
Said the player responsible for the game-winning goal, with a smile: "It’s definitely nice to get outta school for a little bit."
Potomak, the 19-year-old from Aldergrove, B.C., is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, but instead of studying and preparing for exams, which are just a couple of weeks away, she’s busy making her debut at the world championship with the Canadian team.
And the speedy left-winger has had quite an impact so far. Potomak scored the all-important first goal against Finland on Thursday to spur a dominant 4-0 Team Canada victory in the semifinal. Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados was again spectacular, making 23 saves for her second shutout of the tournament.
Potomak’s goal, her second in four games, came after Natalie Spooner carried the puck into the Finnish zone and dished off a pass to Brianne Jenner, who one-timed it on net. Potomak tipped the shot, jumped on the rebound and "just popped it in the back of the net," as she put it.
"We wanted to come out fast, and getting that goal in the first period was huge for us," Potomak said. "We wanted to score first and get on the board, so it was big momentum for our team."
It was the best overall game we’ve seen from Canada thus far at the world championship. Just five days earlier, Finland earned an historic first-ever victory over Canada, 4-3 in group play. But Thursday, when it mattered, the Canadians looked like a different team.
"We’ve been lacking the last couple games with our start," said captain, Marie-Philip Poulin. "We played as a team, shift after shift, wanted to put pressure on them, and that’s what we did."
[relatedlinks]
It was 3-0 Canada before the game was even half over. Poulin scored the nicest goal of the afternoon, wheeling around a Finnish defender and rifling a wrist shot that knocked the water bottle off the net of goaltender Noora Raty.
Rebecca Johnston and Emily Clark also scored for Canada, with Clark putting in the empty-netter after Finland pulled Raty with 5 minutes and 47 seconds to go, to try to get something going.
Johnston, who scored on the power play to make it 3-0 in the second period, says getting that first goal was key.
"We started to get confident, and kept rolling from there," the left-winger said. "It was great to see Sarah put that one in."
Johnston, who plays on the No. 1 line alongside Poulin and Clark, says she’s seen Potomak develop a lot since she made her debut with the team in 2015 at the 4 Nations Cup.
"She’s very young, and she’s definitely come a long way," Johnston says. "A great player. She’s gotten a couple goals this tournament, which is really nice to see."
Potomak is coming off a 20-goal season in 38 games for the Golden Gophers. She won an NCAA championship with the team in her freshman year, when she put up an impressive 54 points, and this year she was a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier award, for the top player in women’s college hockey.
"We brought her in here to put the puck in the back of the net," said Canada’s head coach, Laura Schuler. "She is one of the top goal scorers in the NCAA, and she has done just that for us."
Potomak, who has noticeable speed as well as that scoring ability, has been playing on Canada’s third line, alongside Jenner and Spooner, a pair of veterans and Olympic gold medallists.
"Jenner and Spooner are unbelievable players," Potomak says. "They just allow me to be free and be creative with the puck, and do my thing. It’s been easy to play with them, for sure."
The defending champion Americans beat Germany — by a very lop-sided score of 11-0 — in the other semifinal, setting up the all North American final that has decided the gold medal in every women’s world championship in history. It means Potomak will be playing for gold against a handful of her college teammates who play for Team USA, including Hannah Brandt, Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein.
"It’ll be fun playing against them, but as soon as I get on the ice it’s just another huge rivalry," Potomak says. "I don’t think about the friendships, we just go out there and battle."
She may be the youngest player on this team, but Potomak knows what it’s like to win and lose a world championship. In 2014, she won under-18 world gold, and a year later she was named the U-18 tournament MVP and led all players in scoring, but Canada lost to the Americans in the final.
"It sucks to lose a world championship," Potomak said. "That still sucks and hurts. I’m just gonna carry that into tomorrow’s game and leave it all out there, there’s nothing to lose. I just gotta play my game and use my energy from that game to power me for this [next] game."
And then she’ll get ready for those exams.
