Finland downs Canada in exhibition play, Canadian junior squad posts another win

Helsinki, Finland – December 30, 2015 – The senior teams from Finland and Canada; clearly pegged as the world’s ringette powerhouses, met in exhibition play today at the 2016 world ringette championships in Helsinki. The Finns came away with the win, downing Canada 13-4. The two teams will meet again on New Year’s Day to start off the best two-out-of-three Sam Jacks series.

“The Finns have a powerful offense and this was a great opportunity to see the team,” said Team Canada’s head coach, Barb Bautista. “What we learned today will prepare us for game one.”

Sydney Granger (Dorchester), Dailyn Bell (Lacombe), Paige Nosal (St. Clements) and Jacqueline Gaudet (Cambridge) each contributed singles for Canada.

Canadian junior squad improved their record to 4-0 after shutting out Slovakia 19-0 today. Guelph’s Abby Richardson led the scoring with four goals and three assists, while Red Deer’s Kelsie Caine picked up a hat trick and three assists. Winnipeg’s Ryann Bannerman and Boucherville’s Laurie St-Pierre shared the shutout in nets.

In other round robin games in the President’s Pool today, Finland’s junior team beat USA 21-0, Sweden downed their junior team 16-1 and Slovakia posted their first win, downing the Czech Republic 5-1.

There are nine national teams competing at the event – junior national teams from Canada, Finland, and Sweden and senior national teams from Canada, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden and the United States. The senior national teams from Canada and Finland will compete in the Sam Jacks Series, with Team Finland looking to defend the world title they have held for the last four championship events, in a best two-out-of-three series against Team Canada. The series will start on January 1^st and the winner will claim the Sam Jacks Trophy on either January 3^rd or 4^th.

Team Sweden, Team USA, Team Slovakia, Team Czech Republic, and the junior national teams from Canada, Finland and Sweden are competing in the Presidents’ Pool, which consists of a full round-robin series. Following the round robin, the top two teams will play a best two-out-of-three series for gold and the Presidents’ Trophy (either January 3^rd or 4^th). The third and fourth place team will play a best two-out-of-three series for bronze (either January 3^rd or 4^th).

All games are being live webcast and can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/user/RingetteTV.

Live stats can be found here: http://www.wrc2015.fi/en/Results.html

Round-robin play in the Presidents’ Pool continues tomorrow with the following games taking place (all times are local Helsinki time):

9:45 Sweden Junior vs. Finland Junior
13:00 Slovakia vs. Sweden
16:15 Canada Junior vs. USA
About Ringette

Ringette is a Canadian sport that was invented in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario by the late Sam Jacks. There are currently nearly 30,000 players on nearly 2,000 teams across Canada, with over 1,500 officials and nearly 8000 coaches. Internationally, it is played in more than a half a dozen other countries around the world. Ringette has been designated a Heritage Sport by Sport Canada and as part of the Sport for Life movement, ringette is well advanced at adapting Sport Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development model. For more information, please refer to the Ringette Canada Web site at www.ringette.ca.

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For more information, please contact our media representative who is onsite in Helsinki:

Alayne Martell
Media and Public Relations | Relations de presse et publiques
Ringette Canada | Ringuette Canada
National Ringette League | Ligue Nationale de Ringuette
Phone | Téléphone : (613) 748-5655, ext. 226
Cell : (902) 308-1067
alayne@ringette.ca
@: www.ringette.ca
@: www.nationalringetteleague.ca
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