http://www.southam.com/kitchenerwaterloorecord/sports/sports1.html The Record CANADA OVERPOWERS CHINA By Christine Rivet Record staff The women have been separated from the girls. The gold-medal contenders have been sifted from the pretenders.Following Canada's easy 7-1 romp over the Chinese during the round-robin finale at the Women's Worlds Hockey Championship, the three-time defending world champion Canucks sewed up first place in Pool A and will now meet the Finns in Saturday's 1 p.m. semifinal. In Thursday's other games, the U.S.A. blitzed Sweden 10-0 in London to hang on to first place in the B Pool. The Americans will face the Chinese in Saturday's other semi, slated for 5 p.m. at the Cardillo Arena. Tickets are still available for both games. Elsewhere, Russia eked out a 3-3 draw with the Swiss in North York and earlier at the Cardillo Arena, Finland clobbered Norway 10-0. Runaway winners of their pool, the Canadians have now outscored their opposition 22-2, though the rough and tumble Chinese provided them with their fiercest competition so far. "The Chinese didn't go for the whistles and the icings in the first period. They forechecked and pressured us," said Canada's head coach Shannon Miller. "I appreciated that." Trailing 5-0 at the end of 20 minutes, the Chinese however, decided to retreat to their safer and more familiar five-person defensive box alignment. The results were commendable, if not impressive, as they held the Canucks to a 2-1 advantage through the remaining two periods. Chinese coach Zhinan Zhang said while the Canadians are obviously a world power, his charges were not at their best because they were playing their first game at the much larger Cardillo Arena and the soft and wet ice slowed them down. China's other appearances at the worlds, both comfortable victories, were played at smaller arenas in Hamilton and Mississauga. The Canadians were well briefed on the slash and crash tactics of the Chinese. Canada's player of the game, defenceman Cassie Campbell, took special care to strap on her wrist guards before the match. "We like a lot of body contact," said Miller. "But I can tell you there are a lot of players on our team with sore fore- arms right now." American referee Vicki Kale assessed seven penalties to both sides on Thursday, but Miller said she would have preferred it if Kale had been a stickler for the Chinese players' notorious stick work. Speaking through an interpreter, Zhang deflected Miller's accusations. "Maybe we used our sticks a bit more. But we are trying to improve our skills," he said. The Canucks chased Chinese goalie Hong Guo out of the net after scoring twice on nine shots. But her replacement, Lina Huo, didn't fare much better. She allowed three goals on 10 shots before Guo returned to play the second and third periods. In all, the Canadians peppered China's goaltenders with 42 shots. Winger Lori Dupuis collected four points, including a pair of goals before a crowd of 5,457 at the Cardillo Arena. Campbell also scored twice in her best game of the tournament. Singles went to Gerry Heaney, Hayley Wickenheiser and Vicky Sunohara. China's Wei Guo scored early in the third period, one of only 13 shots directed at Canadian goalie Danielle Dube. Today's action at the Cardillo Arena pits Sweden versus Switzerland at 4 p.m. and Russia versus Norway at 7:30 p.m. Winners from those games will advance to Sunday's fifth-place game -- the final Olympic berth. _________________________________________________________________ (c) Copyright Kitchener-Waterloo Record 1997 [22]Kitchener-Waterloo Record Online