Beijing 2022 Ice Hockey: Team Canada athletes to watch in the Women’s Semi-finals

Canada face Switzerland in the women's ice hockey semi-finals on Monday (14 February) as they bid to regain their Olympic crown at Beijing 2022.

The Canadians won four consecutive Olympic titles from Salt Lake 2002 to Sochi 2014 before being beaten in a shootout by Team USA at PyeongChang 2018.

Team Canada have been relentless so far in China, scoring 33 and conceding just five in their four round-robin victories.

They were equally ruthless in the quarter-finals as they beat Sweden 11-0 to set up a semi-final meeting with the Swiss who they beat 12-1 in their opening game.

The winners will face either USA or Finland in the final on Thursday.

Here are some of the stars to watch for Team Canada.

Sarah Nurse

Sarah Nurse is making her second Games appearance, four years after taking silver in PyeongChang.

The forward was also on the Canada team that won their first World Championship since 2012 last year in Calgary when they defeated the USA in overtime.

The 27-year-old has found the net four times so far in Beijing including a hat-trick against Finland.

Nurse, who plays for Toronto-based Team Sonnet in the PWHPA, started skating at age three and playing hockey at five.

She was inspired after watching the Canadian women's team win gold at Salt Lake City 2002, and is a vocal advocate for gender and racial equality.

Nurse said, "I know that there have been statements made by different people saying, ‘Well, it’s not just a hockey thing, there are gender inequalities and disparities everywhere.’ And so to that I say, well, don’t we see a problem? Why can’t the hockey world be a driving force? Why can’t it be a leader in change? Why can’t it be a champion of change?

"As we move forward as a women’s hockey community, the breadcrumbs that we’ve been given in the past aren’t going to be accepted."

Marie-Philip Poulin

Marie-Philip Poulin is appearing at her fourth Olympic Winter Games having made her debut at Vancouver 2010.

Aged just 18, she scored both goals in the Vancouver final before netting the overtime winner in Sochi.

She also scored in the PyeongChang final making her the only woman to score in three consecutive gold medal games.

Nicknamed 'Captain Clutch', the 30-year-old forward scored another game-winner in last year's World Championship final to claim her second world title.

Poulin is a founding member of the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) after the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) folded in 2019.

The association's mission is to create a financially viable and sustainable professional women’s league.

Barbie dolls with likenesses to Poulin and teammate Nurse launched in November 2020.

Natalie Spooner

Natalie Spooner has been on superb form in Beijing and finished the round-robin stage with 11 points in four games.

The three-time Olympian registered another goal and assist in the quarter-final rout of Sweden.

In 2008, she became the first female player to have represented the U18, U22 and senior Canadian ice hockey teams.

After beating Team USA in the preliminary stage, Spooner told Olympics.com: "It's one of the biggest rivalries in sports and every time we go in against them we want to make a statement and show them that they don't belong on the ice with us."

Sarah Fillier

Sarah Fillier is making a real impact on the ice at her first Olympic Winter Games.

The 21-year-old netted five times in the round-robin stage before hitting a hat-trick in the quarterfinal against Sweden.

While Canada have Switzerland to negotiate before another potential gold medal encounter with USA, Fillier is already relishing the prospect of wresting the title back from their North American neighbours.

She told Olympics.com: "The desire is huge. You hear about it from all the vets in our team who have been there and all the rookies that watched it four years ago.

"We're all in the same boat and it really is gold or bust for us. We take every game as seriously as if we were playing the US. It doesn't matter who we are playing, whether it's a semifinal, quarters or round-robin, we're trying to play the best hockey that we can."

The forward was on the Canada team that won the World Championship in 2021, three years after taking bronze at the U18 Women's World Championship.

Erin Ambrose

Erin Ambrose is another player making her Olympic Winter Games debut at Beijing 2022.

The 27-year-old has won three medals - one of each colour - at the World Championships, claiming gold 12 years after making her national team debut aged 15 with the Under-18s in August 2009.

The defender has detailed her struggles with anxiety and depression, and came out as a member of LGTBQ+ community in a October 2020 piece written for the Hockey Canada website.

She wrote: "With my senior year coming to an end and post-college life approaching in the spring of 2016, I was still struggling immensely with day-to-day anxiety even as I felt more at peace with myself. As I continued to work myself out of the dark hole of depression, my anxiety increased 10-fold with the unknown ahead....To start working through what was holding me back, there were aspects of my life I needed to start to embrace and accept.

"For one, my sexual orientation was something I had been hiding for years...As much as I struggled to choose to be myself and live the real me, I can tell you, with so much happiness, that as a proud LGTBQ+ member, it is WORTH it to be yourself and be PROUD of it."