On the last day of the Women’s World Championships round robin, Canada brought out their very best game and trounced the USA 5-1. In earlier action, Finland beat Switzerland by a margin greater than Canada or the USA managed, showing that two out of three of the top teams are trying to peak late, not early.

In the late game, Japan beat Germany 2-1, taking second and third place in Group B.

Canada now finishes first in Group A and will play Germany in the quarterfinals, while the USA finishes second and plays Japan. Finland is third and will play Czechia, the winner of Group B, while Russia and Switzerland play off in quarterfinal number four.

Those quarters are on Saturday with the semis on Monday and the medal games on Tuesday. What’s that you say? That seems odd? Why, yes, yes it does, and yet the IIHF feels that’s how the women’s event should be scheduled.

Here’s some fun goals to get you started on a proper August Friday of hard work:

In other news, there were two big deals signed yesterday:

And one small one:

If you haven’t had enough of prospects, Pontus Holmberg is playing in the Champions Hockey League today at noon, and fingers crossed, this link should be to the stream. I don’t think it’s geoblocked in Canada.

Dmitri Ovchinnikov is playing for Russia in a U20 four nations event, and the Russian games are available for the dedicated on Russia Hockey’s Youtube channel.

Happy Friday, everyone. The next instalment of the T25 will be out today as well.

From The Branches