The IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship got started today with a four-game slate that included a rematch of last year’s gold medal game between Canada and the United States.

Canada – USA (0-1, 0-0, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)

Getting some revenge for a tough loss to the Canadians in the gold medal final last year, Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in a thrilling shootout tonight at the 2015 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.

Jincy Dunne and Abby Roque converted in the penalty shootout, while Kaitlin Burte shut the door down on Canada to give the United States three points and a good start in the race for the top group seed against their perennial U18 rivals.

“We had a tremendous crowd tonight and we fed off the energy from the fans for a great start,” said Joel Johnson, head coach for the U.S. Women’s National Under-18 Team. “It’s a great win to build off of and we look forward to facing Czech Republic tomorrow.”
Canada faces another tough test when they play Russia in their second game of the tournament on Tuesday. Team USA faces the Czech Republic in the evening game.

Sweden – Japan 3-2 (1-0, 0-1, 2-1)

Team Sweden outlasted a determined Japanese side by a score of 3-2 in the opening game of the tournament.

Hanna Olsson scored a pair of goals including the game winner late in the third period. After Moe Tsukimoto brought her team back into the game with a power play goal in the second period and then notched her second with under five minutes to go to tie things up 2-2, forward Emma Johansson set up Olsson with 58 seconds left to give Sweden the go-ahead goal and a win in its first game.

With its next game coming against newly-promoted Switzerland, Sweden has the chance to get a good start to the tournament after finishing a disappointing sixth place in Budapest 2014. Japan missed an opportunity to get a big win against a traditional European women’s hockey power, but will get another shot to do so against Finland on Tuesday.

Russia – Czech Republic 3-1 (2-0, 1-0, 0-1)

Russia got its tournament started on the right foot with a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic. Captain Anna Shokhina had the first goal of the game and skated away with the Best Player award for her team.

Kristina Korotkhikh and Polina Bolgareva followed up Shokina with goals of their own as Russia jumped to a 3-0 lead and kept the Czechs at bay thanks to some great goaltending from Valeria Tarakanova. The Russian netminder stopped 26 of 27 shots, allowing just one goal to the Czechs early in the third period.

Russia moves on to Canada, which should prove a good test for this team to see how they measure up against the 2014 champions.  

Finland – Switzerland 0-2 (0-0, 0-2, 0-0)

A power play goal by Alina Muller and a score from Kaleigh Quennec in the second period was enough to bury the Finns and give Switzerland a win in its first game of the tournament.

Swiss goaltender Andrea Brandli made 39 saves in a shutout performance against Finland. Switzerland will take on Sweden next on Tuesday.

ADAM STEISS