Team Canada Defence #12, Meaghan Mikkelson waits on the bench as her team plays against the Calgary Buffaloes in Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. The Women's team won 4-3 in overtime.Chris Bolin
Canada won the game, but Kazakhstan goaltender Daria Obydennova put on a show.
Her 64-save performance limited the damage as the Canadian women emerged with a 7-0 victory.
Obydennova spent the post-game ceremony bent over in exhaustion. Her marathon Sunday followed her 52 saves the previous day in a 5-3 loss to Finland.
"She played really well," said Canadian defender Meaghan Mikkelson. "Give her a lot of props, taking that many shots can't be easy two games in a row like that."
Mikkelson had a pair of goals for Canada, although one credited to her was an own-goal by Kazakhstan. Caroline Ouellette, Marie-Philip Poulin, Hayley Wickenheiser, Haley Irwin and Natalie Spooner also scored for Canada. Kim St. Pierre posted a 13-save shutout.
It was Canada's second win a day after opening the tournament with a 12-0 win over host Switzerland.
The Olympic champions have Monday off and conclude Pool B play Tuesday versus Finland, the Olympic bronze medalists.
In Pool A games in Zurich, two-time defending champion U.S. downed Slovakia 5-0, while Sweden downed Russia 7-1.
The top teams in each pool earn byes to Saturday's semifinals. The second teams cross over to meet the third seeds from the other pool in Friday's quarter-finals.
Kazakhstan is a women's hockey minnow to Canada's whale. According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, they have 86 registered female players to Canada's 85,000, so the Kazakhs don't face anywhere near the competition Canadians do to make their national team.
Teams such as Switzerland, ranked No. 5 in the world, and No. 8 Kazakhstan just try to keep the score respectable and avoid blowouts against Canada. Canada beat the Kazakhs 11-0 (2001) and 13-0 (2005) in two previous meetings at world championships.
Kazakhstan was able to keep the differential under double digits thanks to 20-year-old Obydennova, who made her goaltending debut versus Canada.
"It's not a bad result in a game against Canada," Obydennova said via a translator.
Amazingly, Kazakhstan's team management didn't choose Obydennova as their player of the game against Canada, but gave that honour to forward Lyubov Ibragimova.
In contrast to Saturday night's Adrenaline-fuelled opener against the Swiss in front of a sellout, Canada faced a quiet building for their afternoon tilt against the Kazakhs. Announced attendance was 411, but there were fewer than 100 actual spectators in the building.
The Canadians had to generate their own energy on less than 24 hours of recovery.
"It's a quick turnaround, but I think when you ask anybody, when you get out there on the ice and whether there's 10 fans in the stands or a packed house, you keep your focus on the ice," Mikkelson said. "The coaching staff has been harping on us to keep good habits and that's the most important moving forward.
"We need to play every game like it's the gold-medal game, like we're playing Sweden or Finland or the U.S., and stay honest with what we're doing."
Canada led 2-0 and 5-0 at period breaks. The Kazakhs all play for one club team - Aisulu Almaty - so their team game is there. They clogged up the front of the net to help their goaltender.
They lack the puck skills of Canada and struggled to string together passes at the speed Canada makes them play. The Canadians had the puck the vast majority of the time.
Captain Viktoria Sazonova misplayed the puck to Obydennova's right and knocked it behind her own goalie in the second period.
Obydennova said Kazakhstan needs to get more girls in hockey and that boxing is a more popular female sport there. The national team also needs more games against top-calibre countries like Canada and the U.S. to take the next step, she added.
Knowing the Kazakhs were a team Canada could beat and beat badly, Canadian head coach Ryan Walter set goals on which his players could focus: getting shots through traffic to the net; improving line changes; passing up to the defenceman in the offensive zone instead of skating the puck up; cycling the puck to the net in the offensive zone.
"We accomplished what we thought we wanted to get done and I'm proud of the girls," Walter said. "The last two games are not easy games to coach or to play, but we're hoping it'll help build hockey here in Europe."