Seven PWHL Toronto players and multiple staff members helped Team Canada win gold at the IIHF women's World Championships.
On Sunday evening, six PWHL Toronto players helped Canada win the 2024 World Championship in a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory over the United States.
Natalie Spooner, Emma Maltais, Blayre Turnbull, Renata Fast, Jocelyne Larocque and Sarah Nurse contributed throughout the tournament to bring back the Gold to Canada. Toronto's Kristen Campbell also served as the team's third goaltender, and head coach Troy Ryan, and general manager Gina Kingsbury held the same roles with Canada that they do in Toronto.
The most notable of this group was Renata Fast. In the tournament, Renata Fast took full advantage of Troy Ryan's positionless style of hockey, tallying six points in seven games, the most of any player on the Canadian roster. This included three goals, two of which came in the team's 5-1 win over Sweden in the quarterfinals.
This offensive production and only having been on the ice for one goal against led to Fast's selection as the tournament's most valuable defender.
Fast and her partner in crime, Jocelyne Larocque carried their dominance as a pair from the PWHL to this tournament.
Larocque in her own right had a productive offensive tournament scoring five points, including a goal in Canada’s 4-0 win over Czechia in their semi-final matchup. On the other end of the ice, she was equally dominant, ending the tournament with the highest plus-minus of any player with +16. Larocque was also on the ice for only two goals against, while logging the most ice time on the team.
In the forward group, Spooner and Nurse both scored a goal in group play while adding three assists during the tournament.
For Nurse, this has been a theme throughout her 2024 season as she has struggled to find consistent offensive production with PWHL Toronto. Toronto followers were hoping to see her produce on the international stage, giving her momentum that would carry over to the last five games of the PWHL season.
So far this season, judging her as the franchise level player she was supposed to be, Nurse has not lived up to the expectations, in the PWHL or while representing Canada. Toronto fans hope that she finds the next gear and makes Toronto that much more of a threat down the stretch.
After having an MVP candidate level year to start her PWHL career, Spooner was also quiet for Canada. This isn’t something to read into as throughout the tournament she had several great scoring opportunities that she couldn’t capitalize on.
The lack of impact from these two shows how much the younger players such as PWHL Draft prospects Danielle Serdachny and Sarah Fillier were able to step up for Canada to help them reclaim gold.
Turnbull and Maltais both scored three points in the tournament with Maltais supplying two goals in Canada’s first two group games against Finland and Switzerland.
All PWHL Toronto players will return home as they get set to go on a three-game road trip starting on Thursday in Boston, as they will try to lock up the top seed in the league.