Canada poured it on in the opening period by scoring three goals early and eliminating any Swiss hopes of an upset. Spooner got Canada on the board early when she swooped around the net unharmed and came out into the slot where she fired a shot to the top corner, beating Schelling at 7:29.

Three minutes later, Canada believed it had scored again when Caroline Ouellette put the puck in the net on a power play, but referee Erin Blair ruled a Canadian was in the crease and waived the goal off. No matter. After the next faceoff Spooner deflected a Brianne Jenner point shot at 11:10 to make it a 2-0 game.

Then, Daoust completed the first-period scoring when she tapped in her own rebound at 11:33. Coach Rene Kammerer called a timeout for the Swiss at that point, but the damage had been done.

The second period, though, marked another small but significant moment in Swiss history. Jessica Lutz scored on the power play for the Swiss, and Canada failed to reply. As a result, the Swiss won the period, 1-0, the first time ever the Swiss had won any 20-minute period from Canada.

Lutz's goal came on a play where goalie Szabados thought she had covered the puck. The Swiss forced it free, and Lutz had an open net to push the puck in.

"When I scored, it was a little bit of a turning point," Lutz noted. "It got some momentum, some emotion for us. I think we started to think, ‘Okay, we can really do this.’ We won that period. Overall, I think the game is a little bit of a disappointment for us. We were trying to win it. But this definitely brings some good, positive energy for the next game."

"Within this tournament we've grown in confidence," noted Julia Marty. "When we scored our goal we saw that we can actually play against Canada. But they are still professional players, faster and stronger than us. In the first period they took advantage of individual errors to score their goals."

The period also featured some great goaltending. Alina Muller was robbed by Szabados, but Schelling took goals away from Marie-Philip Poulin and Spooner, both of whom had great chances from in close to restore Canada’s two-goal led.

In the third, Canada dominated but could not put another puck past Schelling. Notable stops included a close-in chance by Jenner and a breakaway by Spooner.

The Swiss will play Sweden for the bronze in two days' time, and given their fine performance here, the play of Schelling, and the fact that they won bronze in 2012, the prospects are good for a team that only a few years ago was hardly to be considered a medal prospect.

"If we keep the pace up that we played today and keep that level of confidence up until we play Sweden, we’re going to have a very, very good chance of winning," Schelling said.

"They’ve got a great team and great goalie," offered Agosta. "We just kept coming. We stuck with our game plan, but they gave us a run for our money. It just goes to show you that women’s hockey is getting a lot better and a lot of teams are getting stronger and that’s what we want. It was a great team and I thought their team played well."