URL:http://www.torstar.com/sportswire/amhockey/HKY-Women-Worlds.html _________________________________________________________________ Late breaking SportsWire Story last updated on Wed Apr 2 23:40:19 EST 1997 _________________________________________________________________ Return of Vicky Sunohara adds scoring punch - The wounded heart and broken hand have healed. Vicky Sunohara is back. She scored Canada's first goal of the women's world hockey tournament in a 6-0 win over Switzerland on Monday, then added another in a 9-1 win over Russia on Tuesday. ``I'm very excited to be back,'' says the 26-year-old forward from Toronto. ``It's a great feeling, and the support I'm getting from my teammates is helping me play with a lot of confidence.'' Canada has dominated women's hockey. It won the first three global meets, in 1990, 1992 and 1994, going 15-0 and outscoring opponents 136-18 in the process. Now it's 17-0 and 151-19 and a spot in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, has been clinched. Sunohara was there at the start. She'd played for two years at Northeastern University in Boston, earning all-America honors, and two more at the University of Toronto before helping Canada win the inaugural world tournament in Ottawa. Disappointments followed. She didn't make the final roster in 1992 and the hand injury took her out of the 1994 training camp. ``When I got cut in '92 I kind of stepped back from being as competitive as I had been,'' she said. ``Then in '94 I broke my hand, but even without the broken hand I wasn't as committed as I am now. ``But after watching the '94 tournament in Lake Placid I made the decision that I wanted to come back and I made the commitment. It wasn't so much about trying to go to the Olympics. I was thinking I could get back in there, get back to the national level.'' She came back strong, winning MVP honors in her Ontario league in 1995-96 with the Toronto Red Wings. ``I had some help,'' she explains. ``With a lot of friends in hockey, I started to have a good time again. ``I enjoyed playing. With enjoying it again, it helped the way I played. I started playing better and everything sort of fell into place.'' And Sunohara is ecstatic to be back with the Canadian team. ``The coaches on the national team gave me a second chance to get back into the program,'' Sunohara says. ``I put a lot of effort into it, and it's all been worth it. ``I'm so proud to be able to play for my country. I'm so honored to play with the players on this team. There's just such great leadership. It's such a great feeling being here.'' Sunohara's enthusiasm is contagious. ``Being away from it for so long and now getting a second chance, I'm just very excited,'' she says. She plays on a line with fellow-Torontonians Laura Schuler and Karen Nystrom. Call it the SNS Line. The three grew up together on ice. When Sunohara scored the first tournament goal for Canada, Nystrom dashed to the Swiss net to retrieve the puck for her friend. ``After all these years, we're playing together internationally on the same line,'' she says, an incredulous smile breaking across her face. ``I call them the Roadrunner (Nystrom) and Speedy Gonzalez (Schuler) because they're so fast.'' Sunohara has time off from her job as a quality control technician at a Mississauga soft drink plant to play for Canada, which had Wednesday off. A game tonight against China, also 2-0 in this tournament, will provide a more accurate assessment of where the Canadian team is at. ``We're confident that if we stick to our game plan we'll be fine,'' she said. KITCHENER, Ont. (CP) SportsWire