Toronto Star Sports =================== Women Nats win opener By Alan Adams - Toronto Star Sports Reporter October 21, 1996 URL: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/961021SPD6_SP-ADAMS21.html OTTAWA - There's at least one team with the Maple Leaf on its chest that knows how to score and win. The Canadian women's hockey team kicked off its Olympic preparations last night by beating Finland 4-1 in the opening game of a tournament featuring the top three countries in women's hockey - Canada, the United States and Finland. _________________________________________________________________ Canada 4, Finland 1 _________________________________________________________________ The Canucks went from having a horrid opening period to dominating the second, when they scored twice in front of 1,800 fans. Tonight in Cornwall, the defending world champions play the second-ranked U.S. And while the level of the competition can't be compared to the Canada-U.S. World Cup games, the intensity and enthusiasm is the same. The calibre of play was equivalent to a cut above Triple-A midget except for the lack of contact. ``They are always psyched against them because they are the type who will rub it right in,'' said Geraldine Heaney of Toronto. Fiona Smith of Saskatchewan and Angela James of Toronto scored in the second period and Isabelle Chartrand of Anjou, Que., and Karen Nystrom of Scarborough scored in the third. Leslie Reddon of Mississauga was sharp in net to get the victory. The tournament is the first trip along a 15-month road to the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and it's also serving as a barometer for the world championships in Kitchener next March and April. If you had to judge Canada's chances of winning both events by the women's performance in the opening 20 minutes, you would have to say they face a long and difficult road to stay on top. ``It was a bit of butterflies,'' coach Shannon Miller said. ``Our hands were tight, hence our poor puck control.'' The Canadian power play also had a hard time getting on track. The Canucks were never able to get control of the play when they had the player advantage. But what they couldn't do in the first, they did in the second when it was the Canucks and not the Finns who were flying. ``We needed to loosen up and we did,'' Miller added. ``There wasn't much said between the first and second periods. The girls knew they had to play better.'' Smith scored the game's first goal at 2:58. She came in from her point position and took a slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle which deflected off a player in front of goalie Liisa-Maria Sneck. James provided the Canadians with some breathing room at 5:47. ---------- Contents copyright © 1996, The Toronto Star. User interface, selection and arrangement copyright © 1996 Torstar Electronic Publishing Ltd. To provide feedback or commentary on this site, please write to Webmaster@thestar.com