Canada, Czechia Head To FISU World University Games Semi-Finals As Top Seeds

The preliminary round of the FISU World University Games in Torino, Italy are complete with Canada sitting atop Group A, and Czechia atop Group B.

After the preliminary round, Canada, Japan, Slovakia, and Czechia are the four nations remaining in the hunt for gold, while USA, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain, and Kazakhstan move to placement games after being eliminated.

Canada finished their Group stage games with a 6-2 win over Slovakia, their closest contest to date. Waterloo's Leah Herrfort again led the way for Canada scoring twice in the win. Emilie Lussier, Gabrielle Santerre, Emilie Lavoie, and Katia Pelowich also scored for Canada.

Slovakia was the first team to score against Canada in the event with senior national team member Romana Haluskova getting their first, and Laura Sulikova scoring their second.

Canada will now face off against the second seed from Group B, Japan, in their semi-final. Japan finished their round robin play with a 5-0 win over USA, and a 4-0 less to Czechia.

On the other side, Czechia won Group B and will face neighboring nation Slovakia in the semi-finals. Czechia has been led at the tournament by Hana Haasova, who currently plays for Djurgardens in the SDHL, and Barbora Bartakova who is leading Czechia's domestic league in scoring for HC Banik Pribram with 58 points in only 12 games.

Canada's Leah Herrfort is leading the tournament in goals and points with seven goals and 11 points in three games, followed by Emilie Lussier who has six goals and 10 points in that span.