Canadian women win in quarterfinal shootout at Junior Pan Ams

Canada’s Under-21 Women’s National Team won a do-or-die quarterfinal match 5-3 in shootout Tuesday at the 2016 Junior Women’s Pan American Championships in Trinidad and Tobago.

With the win, the Canadian women move on to face Argentina in the semifinal on Thursday, April 7 at 1:45pm in Trinidad. Watch the game live online here.

“We wanted to put them under pressure and I thought we played a really good match,” says Junior Women’s National Team head coach Steph Andrews. “We moved the ball well; we probably didn’t finish off our opportunities I don’t think as we should have. But it was a close match.”

Neither team was able to score throughout regulation time, but it wasn’t for a lack of chances.

In fact, the Canadians had a penalty corner in the 69th minute but narrowly missed out.

We were just trying to push through and take every opportunity as we could,”says Priya Randhawa, one of the team’s more experienced players. “If one didn’t come we’d have another and just keep fighting until the very last second because it could have been anybody’s game.”

But with neither team able to convert on their chances during the game, a shootout was necessary to decide who would move on to the tournament semifinal against Argentina.

All of Canada’s five shooters in the shooutout – including Randhawa, who shot last and clinched the win – were able to score. The other shooters were Margaret Pham, Ellie Cookson, Nikki Woodcroft, and Jaslan Stirling.

Lauren Logush played the entire game in goal and made a key save off Lucia Castro in the second round of the shootout, to eventually give Randhawa and Canada a chance to win.

“It was a really close match and it could have been anybody’s game,” Randhawa adds. “I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished so far.”

The winner of the Canada-Argentina semifinal will face the winner of the United States and Chile in the tournament final.