Ontario Red will again play for gold, while Quebec will look to redeem their finals loss from last season as the two teams play for Canada's U-18 national title.
Ontario Red will again play for gold, while Quebec will look to redeem their finals loss from last season as the two teams play for Canada's U-18 national title.
Ontario Red has won the U-18 women's national hockey championships 13 times in the 14 year history of the tournament. They're set to go for number 14 as they drop the puck against Quebec for the ninth time in tournament history.
Facing British Columbia in the semi-finals, Ontario Red earned a 4-1 win paced by a two goal performance from Molly Farace.
“We had one goal coming out here and that was to win the gold medal," said Farace. "We’re not there yet, but the girls worked so hard today, and we battled to get the win.”
To get there, Ontario Red will need to defeat Quebec. It's a rematch from last year's gold medal game. Quebec needed a shootout to advance to the gold medal game beating Saskatchewan 2-1. Florence Bourque scored for Quebec, with assists to Renée Bishop and Rosalie Tremblay to open the scoring before Stryker Zablocki tied things for Saskatchewan. In the shootout, Saskatchewan netminder Ava Drabyk and Quebec's Marilou Grenier continued their spectacular play with Bishop scoing the only goal in the shootout for Quebec.
“We’re one step closer to our goal," said Grenier after making 33 saves in the game, and stopping five attempts in the shootout. "From Day 1, our goal has been to get back to the final and this time win it. It was hard for me tonight because I was facing off against my Team Canada U18 camp partner and friend in Ava Drabyk. After the game I told her I was proud of her—she’s been amazing. This game could have gone either way and she deserved the win as well.”
Saskatchewan and British Columbia will face off for bronze.