2018-19 National Women's Under-18 Team

CANADA CLOSES PRELIMS WITH WIN OVER RUSSIA

JESSICA GOWANS

OBIHIRO, Japan – Alexie Guay (Magog, Que./North American Hockey Academy, JWHL) had a goal and two assists, Anne Cherkowski (Vernon, B.C./Pursuit of Excellence, CSSHL) chipped in a goal and a helper and Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team topped Russia 5-1 on Tuesday at the 2019 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.

The win clinches a semifinal spot for the Canadians; they will take on the winner of the Russia-Switzerland quarter-final on Sunday (3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT).

Kendall Cooper (Burlington, Ont./Stoney Creek, PWHL) and Maddie Wheeler (Erinsville, Ont./Nepean, PWHL) had two assists apiece. In all, eight different Canadian players hit the scoresheet in the game.

Guay’s goal was a power-play tally that opened the scoring for Canada late in the first period; she parked herself in front of the net and tipped home a point shot from Cooper.

Cherkowski stretched the lead to 2-0 just 36 seconds later. Rachel Weiss (Calgary, Alta./Pursuit of Excellence, CSSHL) broke into the zone and fired a perfect tape-to-tape pass to Cherkowski, who made no mistake.

Canada got another power-play marker to round out the scoring in the first when Grace Shirley (Saskatoon, Sask./Saskatoon, SFMAAAHL) followed up her initial shot, corralled the rebound and flicked it up and over Russian goaltender Daria Gredzen, who was replaced by Anna Alpatova after the goal.

The lone goal in the second period came off the stick of Teagan Grant (New Liskeard, Ont./Toronto, PWHL), a laser beam from the top of the left circle to make it 4-0 after 40 minutes.

Russia ended the shutout bid of Canadian netminder Raygan Kirk (Ste. Anne, Man./Eastman, MFMHL) early in the third period; Yelena Mezentseva fed a perfect cross-ice feed to Kristi Shashkina, who went top corner on Kirk for a power-play goal.

Canada capped the scoring on a two-man advantage just over a minute later when Stephanie Markowski (Edmonton, Alta./Pursuit of Excellence, CSSHL) fired in a shot through traffic.

The Canadians held a 42-11 advantage in shots on goal.