(Brampton) Sanni Ahola stopped all 15 shots aimed at her as five different skaters found the back of the net in Finland’s 5-0 win over Hungary on Monday in a Championship Group B game Women’s Hockey World Cup.
Nelli Laitinen, Jenni Hiirikoski, Jenniina Nylund, Emilia Vesa and Ronja Savolainen scored for the winners. Nylund, Vesa and Savolainen are tied with two other skaters atop the tournament scoring charts with four goals.
Their teammate Vivi Vainikka and Sweden’s Lina Ljungblom are the other two.
Aniko Nemeth blocked 27 of the 31 shots she faced. Coming in relief, Zsuzsa Revesz yielded once in five shots.
Finland finished the preliminary round undefeated in four games and sit first in Group B. They have scored 26 goals and conceded just three.
Hungary are to face Germany in their last game. She still has a chance to crack the top 3 of the group and qualify for the quarter-finals. They are currently ranked fourth behind Sweden, who will face France on Tuesday.
In a Group A duel played later on Monday, Lara Stalder scored the decisive goal with 9:06 remaining in regulation time to give Switzerland a 4-3 victory over Japan, in a duel between two clubs who were looking for a first victory.
Lara Christen, Nicole Vallario and Alina Muller scored the other goals for Switzerland, which rallied from 2-0 deficits early in the game and 3-2 early in the third period.
The Japanese response came from Remi Koyama, Yoshino Enomoto and Aoi Shiga.
The five teams from Group A will advance to the quarterfinals, which begin on Thursday.
