It wasn't gold, but Canada will return home with some hardware after defeating Russia 7-0 in the bronze-medal game of the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship on Sunday.
The Canadians were playing for third place for the first time in tournament history after stunningly losing to Finland in the semifinals on Saturday. Canada didn't have much time to dwell on the historic exit, suiting up against the Russians less than 24 hours later.
Perry Pearn's squad was able to put the shocking semifinal loss behind them in short order, as Natalie Spooner got the scoring started just over six minutes into Sunday's contest. Jaime Bourbonnais, Rebecca Johnston, Jamie Lee Rattray and Erin Ambrose also tallied goals for the Canadians, but the star of the game was Loren Gabel, who scored twice Sunday to cap off her first World Championship.
"Representing my country is a huge honour and definitely a dream come true," Gabel told TSN. "Looking up to the players that I've looked up to my whole life and playing with them is definitely an amazing honour as well."
Gabel ended the tournament with six goals in total, but even with her considerable offensive output the 21-year-old said she learned a lot during her first experience in the competition.
"You can't take any shifts off," Gabel said. "Obviously we had some ups and downs in the Finland game and that obviously hurt us, but hopefully we can come up on top next year."
GAME OVER! 🇨🇦 blanks 🇷🇺 to win bronze. 🥉
— Team Canada Women (@HC_Women) April 14, 2019
Game stats: https://t.co/jTdxecsqoH #WomensWorlds pic.twitter.com/nLdjceXEEu
At the other end of the ice, Geneviève Lacasse got her second start of the tournament and blanked the Russians, stopping all six of the shots she faced. Lacasse's only other action came in preliminary round, also against Russia, in a 5-1 win.