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With her three-year-old son Mathéo in the rink watching, Canadian women’s hockey star Mélodie Daoust continued her torrid pace at the women’s world hockey championship, scoring two goals to lift Canada to a 4-0 semifinal victory over an overachieving Swiss squad Monday night in Calgary. 

Canada will meet the United States, the defending champions, in Tuesday’s gold-medal game (7:30 pm ET; 4:30 pm PT TSN3, TSN4) after the U.S. shut out Finland Monday afternoon. The Swiss will face Finland in the bronze-medal game also on Tuesday (3:30 pm ET; 12:30 pm PT, TSN4)

The 29-year-old Daoust now leads the tournament with six goals and six assists in six games. After the game, the Valleyfield, Que., product shared a touching, socially-distanced moment with Mathéo as she was leaving the ice. She figures it has been over 40 days since she last held him after the team arrived in Calgary in July.

“It’s been way too long,” Daoust said. 

“It’s been a challenge for sure, but I’m really happy I’m surrounded by all my friends here to pick me up everyday. It really helps when you have a goal in mind and I think he’s the reason why I’m here.”

On Saturday, the Swiss had offered the tournament’s version of David slaying Goliath by defeating the Russian Olympic Committee 3-2 in overtime. Any hopes of another upset were quelled in the first period thanks to Daoust and Renata Fast scoring less than two minutes apart to give Canada a multi-goal lead the hosts would not come close to relinquishing. 

The score could surely have been more lopsided. 

Canada fired 65 shots on Swiss goalie Andrea Braendli, including 19 inside the faceoff dots in the first period alone. Switzerland, meanwhile, often looked like they were overthinking things in the offensive zone, often making one more pass than necessary and sometimes failing to fire anything on net on odd-man rushes.

Ann-Renée Desbiens, who got the start in goal for the Canadians, made just 10 saves in securing Canada’s third shutout in six games.

“I’m definitely proud of this group,” Canada’s head coach Troy Ryan said. 

“I think the way they’ve handled the pandemic and finding ways to get better, whether it was physically or mentally, and sticking together through very difficult times, I think it’s a special group and I think they have a special thing brewing right now.”

Canada failed to reach the women’s worlds final in 2019 after losing to Finland in the semifinal and settled for bronze. The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizers to cancel the 2020 tournament, and the 2021 event was originally scheduled for Nova Scotia in May but was cancelled but later rescheduled for Calgary.

Ryan caught a glimpse of Daoust interacting with her son. It’s moments like that which make this year’s tournament both so special and so challenging.

“Melodie specifically is someone that we see often on FaceTime with her little one,” he said. 

“I think it’s something that the entire program embraces. Before Melo had that interaction with her young one, [Marie-Philip Poulin] was having the exact same interaction with Melo’s little guy so it’s special. We talk a lot about family when you’re working with sports teams and any time you can mingle actual family with a team type of family environment, it’s definitely special.

“It’s great her little one has been able to come watch her play and perform so well.”

The one guarantee for Tuesday’s final is that it will mark the end of bubble life for women’s worlds participants, coaches and officials and, at the very least, promises some emotional family reunions.

While Mathéo isn’t quite old enough to understand his mom’s stature in the world of women’s hockey, Daoust is certain that day will come.

“I think he really grounds me,” she laughed. 

“He doesn’t really know what’s happening and he doesn’t know what the world championship means. He’s way too young. I just think he’s happy to be here. He’s happy to see me do what I love. I think one day he’ll understand when we look back at it and that’s what matters the most.”