BUFFALO – It’s Canada against the United States once again for the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship gold medal, the eighth time in the eight-year history of the tournament that these two countries meet in the final.

Same old song and dance? Yes, but judging by the way these two North American rivals elevate their game when they face each other, there’s currently no better matchup to show off how far women’s youth hockey has progressed  since this tournament began in 2008.

Canada and the U.S. have played some classics at the U18s, probably none better than in Germany 2009, Chicago 2010 and Finland 2013. Each of these games was decided by a sudden death overtime goal, one that went in for the U.S. and two for the Canadians.

In Fussen, Germany, the second-ever U18 Women’s World Championship , future USA Olympians Kendall Coyne and Megan Bozek claimed the second gold for the Americans. Coyne was the overtime hero, putting in the championship winning goal 6:47 into the extra time after Megan Bozek fed her a perfect pass for a breakaway strike.

A year later in Chicago, the Americans led 4-2 late in the second period but couldn’t withstand a potent Canadian offence. Canadian forward and tournament  MVP Jessica Campbell, who had 15 points in five games, deflected a point shot at 3:10 of overtime to cap a terrific comeback by Canada, as the nation won 5-4 and earned its first gold at the U18 Championship. The game was remembered for the kind of end-to-end, lightning fast, physical, skilled, and eminently entertaining play that is the hallmark of a Canada-USA ice hockey matchup at any level.

One of the players for the States participating in this year’s tournament, team captain Jincy Dunne,  would recall Finland 2013. In what was another close matchup Canada pulled out a heart-stopping 2-1 victory over the United States in the final, as Catherine Dubois tied the game with 12 seconds left in the third period to set up Karly Heffernan’s game winner  58 seconds into  in overtime.

So what can we expect tonight in Buffalo? Probably more of the same, since the two teams have already seen each other in extra time in the tournament’s opening day, which ended with a win for the States in the shootout.

Either way, both teams are ready for a battle in front what is anticipated to be a sellout crowd at the Harborcenter Rink in Buffalo.

“We’re just ready to go, this is our last chance, and we’ve had a great time we’ve been here 16 days and we’re all set to go,” said Dunne, who has been to the last two finals and ended up with silver in both. “We just want to go out there and play for each other, play for the USA and just do it.”

“We know that we are in for a fight,” said Canada goaltender Marlene Boissonnault. “They are so similar to us in so many ways, it will be interesting to see what happens.”

Puck drop is at 19:00 EDT. The game can be streamed live with a fee via Fasthockey.com.


ADAM STEISS