Women's U-18 World Championship Day 1: Canada, USA, Czechia and Slovakia Win

Canada handled Finland, the USA survived Sweden, Czechia beat Switzerland and Slovakia defeated Japan in the opening day of the U-18 Women's World Championship.

Day 1 of the 2023 U-18 Women’s World Championship is in the books with impressive wins for Canada, USA, Czechia and Slovakia.

Newcomers to the tournament asserted themselves as scoring threats early, while Sweden, new to Group A this year, gave USA a scare. Here is a recap of each game and the three stars of the day.

Waterloo, Ont.’s Caitlin Kraemer emerged early as one of Canada’s top scoring threats, kicking off Team Canada’s tournament with their first two goals en route to an 8-0 win over Finland.

Four minutes into the first, Emma Pais led the rush into Finland’s zone. She connected a backhand pass to a streaking Kraemer down the middle of the ice, who beat Finland’s Kerttu Kuja-Halkola. Passing the period’s midway point, Alex Law scooped up a puck behind the goal line and found Kraemer on the doorstep, who scored low far side.

In the second, Mackenzie Alexander fed Abby Lunney breaking in alone, who went five hole to score. In the final minute of the second, Keira Hurry scored on a point shot, followed 33 seconds later by Piper Grober, extending Canada’s lead to 5-0.

In the third, Abby Stonehouse scored her first goal for Canada, with Law picking up her third assist. Gracie Graham and Eloise Caron rounded out Canada’s scoring in the 8-0 win. Canada peppered 48 shots on Kuja-Halkola, who was solid in net for the Finns.

For critics claiming the women’s U-18 World Championships are a two-team tournament, Sweden showed parity is coming.

Sweden gave the USA all they could handle in this contest, which ended 6-3 for the Americans after an empty-netter.

Ava Lindsey scored the opener when a Molly Jordan pinball deflected off her. Jordan grabbed the rebound off Maggie Scannell’s shot, ringing the corner of the crossbar before putting the puck off legs and through Swedish netminder Ida Henriksson.

Feeding off a loud home crowd, Sweden knotted the game at 1-1 on a shorthanded goal from Emma Rehn, and then tied it again at 2-2 on a power-play marker with Mira Hallin shovelling home a loose puck in the crease. 

Before the second period was out, Peyton Compton scored to make it 3-2 for the USA.

In the third, Lucia Digirolamo snuck one short side on Henriksson from along the goal line, which would be the eventual game-winner for the Americans. Sweden scored another in the third before Finley McCarthy put the game on ice for the USA, scoring an empty-netter in the 6-3 decision.

USA netminder Annalies Bergmann stopped 29 of 32 shots for the win.

After falling behind 2-0 against Switzerland, who perennially has been part of Group A at women’s competitions, Czechia came back to grab a crucial 3-2 win.

With just over a minute to go in the third, Czechia’s Anna Vanickova drove around a Swiss defender below the goal line to the right of the net before finding Zikmunda Mazancova in the slot. She dropped to one knee for leverage and beat a sprawling Talina Benderer to give Czechia the win.

Czechia outshot the Swiss in what turned out to be a lopsided game in possession, firing 30 shots to Switzerland’s 11.

It’s almost unheard of for a 14-year-old to step into a U-18 international competition and make an immediate impact, but the future is now for Slovakia’s Nela Lopusanova.

Lopusanova opened the scoring by protecting the puck on her backhand as she cut around a Japanese defender. As she approached the net, Lopusanova quickly pulled the puck across her body to her forehand going top shelf over Ririna Takenaka’s blocker.

Lopusanova scored again and added two assists in Slovakia’s 6-3 win over Japan for a four-point performance.

Her linemate and Slovak captain Zuzana Dobiasova scored a hat trick in the win, while Livia Debnarova turned aside 22 shots.

The new kid on the block for Canada made an immediate impact by scoring twice and adding an assist. Alex Law was named Canada’s top player notching three assists, but Kraemer’s impact was felt early in the game, giving Canada momentum for the remainder of the match. She also was Canada’s leader in the faceoff circle, winning 61.9 percent of her draws.

Slovakian captain Zuzana Dobiasova was named the top player for scoring a hat trick, but the 14-year-old Lopusanova flashed elite skills. Eligible for three more U-18 tournaments, she’s the future of Slovakia’s push to gain ground in the international women’s game. Her final goal, which came on a penalty shot, showed her vision and quick hands by outwaiting the Japanese netminder.

One of the youngest Americans at last year’s tournament flashed speed and puck skills in the opening game by scoring a goal and adding an assist for the USA. Playing for Shattuck St. Mary’s, Scannell is committed to Wisconsin but still has another year of eligibility at the U-18 level. Scannell’s goal was a power-play marker where she gained speed through the neutral zone off her crossover before toe-dragging and firing a shot to score from the high slot.