2018-19 National Women's Under-18 Team

SERDACHNY SCORES IN OVERTIME, CANADA TO GO FOR GOLD

JESSICA GOWANS

OBIHIRO, Japan – Danielle Serdachny (Edmonton, Alta./Pursuit of Excellence, CSSHL) scored the overtime winner 44 seconds into the extra frame to give Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team to a 4-3 semifinal win over Russia on Saturday at the 2019 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.

With the Canadians enjoying a power play early in overtime, Serdachny gathered in a loose puck behind the net, walked to the front and snapped a quick shot short-side on Russian netminder Daria Gredzen to send her team to the final.

Canada will face off against the United States in the gold medal game Sunday morning (3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT).

Alexie Guay (Magog, Que./North American Hockey Academy, JWHL) chipped in a goal and an assist, and led a group of eight Canadians to earn at least a point in the contest.

Russia opened the scoring with a power-play marker from Anna Savonina, who fired home from the top of the zone through a maze of bodies just past the nine-minute mark.

Nicole Kelly (Brantford, Ont./Etobicoke, PWHL) responded for Canada three minutes later. Kelly picked the pocket of a Russian defender in the corner, walked out front and went top shelf with a backhand.

Guay scored her goal 1:28 into the second period, tipping in a Maddi Wheeler (Erinsville, Ont./Nepean, PWHL) point shot, but the Russian power play struck again to even the score at 2-2 when Ilona Markova snapped a shot just under the arm of Canadian goaltender Raygan Kirk (Ste. Anne, Man./Eastman, MFMHL).

Julia Gosling (London, Ont./London, PWHL) restored the Canadian lead with 24 seconds left in the middle frame; on a Canadian man advantage, Gosling finished off a feed from Guay with a shot from the face-off dot.

Yelena Provorova scored another power-play goal for Russia with just over eight minutes to go in the third period, corralling a loose puck in front of the net and tucking it around a sprawled-out Kirk to force overtime.

The Canadians finished with a 30-13 advantage in shots on goal.