Canada Punches Ticket To Semi-Finals Following Win Over Czechia

Canada's national development team secured top spot in Group A of the Women's Euro Hockey Tour after shutting out Czechia 3-0.

Colgate netminder Hannah Murphy posted 17 saves for her first career international shutout and win.

“It felt great [to get the shutout]," said Murphy. "It was an awesome team win for us and to kill some big penalties in the third period was a really good momentum boost for our team. We keep getting better every period; it is really awesome playing behind such talented athletes. If we keep doing what we are doing, we will continue building throughout the tournament.”

Anne Cherkowski, Maya Labad and Sarah Paul were Canada's goal scorers in the contest.

Canada will advance to the semi-finals looking to punch their ticket to the finals this weekend.

“We are playing a very solid game; we are playing together, which is nice to see in a short-term competition like this," said Cherkowski, who plays collegiately for Clarkson.

"We are being very hard to play against, getting in on the forecheck and battling hard. It felt good to come out and get some momentum [with a goal], we used that to our advantage and carried it through the game. It will be nice to regroup and learn from the first two games, seeing where we can upgrade and improve before heading into the elimination round.”

Earlier in the day USA secured top spot in Group A beating Switzerland 6-2.

Canada will face either Sweden or Switzerland in the semis.