"It shows we are back," said veteran Finnish forward Noora Tulus. "We want to be playing for a medal. Al of those goals prove we’re here to beat everyone. We’re ready. The game gave us a lot of confidence for the next game. All four lines can score."
"We need to win games like this to prove we belong back in the A group," Petra Nieminen added. "It was a really solid game, and now we need to keep going."
Jenniina Nylund led the offence with a hat trick while Nelli Laitinen, Viivi Vainikka, and Petra Nieminen all had four points. In all, 16 of 19 skaters had a point.
This was the first ever meeting between the teams at the Women’s Worlds. By playing in the game, Finland’s captain Jenni Hiirikoski extended her record of Women’s Worlds appearances to 15 tournaments and 83 games.
France is right back at it tomorrow, playing Hungary in the late game, while Finland gets an early day off before facing Germany on Friday.
"It’s tough to lose 14-1," offered French captain Lore Baudrit. "We didn’t play how we need to play, but Finland is a great team. They always play for a medal, but we need to have better habits. We’re not too happy with how we played. We were a little slow, but it’s done and we need to move forward and think about tomorrow."
Nieminen got things started at 5:19 short-handed when she wired a shot over the glove of Margaux Mameri, who was making her debut with Team France. Mameri was the third goalie at the 2019 WW but never saw any game action. Just 44 seconds later, Nylund also beat Mameri over the glove with a hard one-timer during the same short-handed situation.
Two minutes later, the Finns pounced again, this time a more inelegant goal from Emilia Vesa, who pushed the puck over the goal line while Mameri thought it was in her pads. Vesa scored a near identical goal later in the period, jamming the puck over the goal line after Laitinen’s point shot found its way through the goalie’s equipment.
The Finns added two late goals to put the game quickly out of reach. Tulus ripped a long screen shot over that suspect Mameri’s glove at 16:33, and Julia Liikala finished a nice pass from Sanni Vanhanen to make it 6-0 after the first period.
Although the Finns continued to roll in the second, the French did get on the board early to spoil Sanni Ahola’s shutout bid in her first game with the senior team. Chloe Aurard barrelled down the right side and got off a backhand, and Estelle Duvin banged home the rebound before Ahola could react.
Just a minute later, though, Suomi made it 7-1 on a nice deke in close by Nylund, and two minutes after that Rosa Lindstedt’s high shot beat Mameri again. That spelled the end for the French goalie, who was replaced by Caroline Lambert, who won her only previous top-level WW game back in 2019, 3-2 over Germany in overtime.
Laitinen beat Lambert, though, midway through the period to up the count to 9-1, and Vainikka scored the ten spot at 2:34 of the third, the first time Finland had reached double digits in a game in 26 years. They added five more in the final period and outshot their opponents 53-12.
"We have found good drive during the season in Europe," said Hiirikoski. "We want to show how well we can play. We have a couple of new girls in the group, and good energy. We know what we want to do here."
Laitinen beat Lambert, though, midway through the period to up the count to 9-1, and Vainikka scored the ten spot at 2:34 of the third, the first time Finland had reached double digits in a game in 26 years. They added five more in the final period and outshot their opponents 53-12.
"We have found good drive during the season in Europe," said Hiirikoski. "We want to show how well we can play. We have a couple of new girls in the group, and good energy. We know what we want to do here."