2018-19 National Women's Under-18 Team

CANADA FALLS TO U.S. AT U18 WORLDS

JESSICA GOWANS

OBIHIRO, Japan – Julia Gosling (London, Ont./London, PWHL) and Laura Cote (Burlington, Ont./Mississauga, PWHL) scored a goal apiece, but Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team dropped a narrow 3-2 decision to the United states on Monday at the 2019 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.

Gosling opened the scoring late in the first period. Maddie Wheeler (Erinsville, Ont./Nepean, PWHL) found the puck in the corner and made a beautiful cross-ice feed to Gosling, who lasered a shot into the top corner.

Cote extended the lead just 1:26 into the second period, taking a long lead pass from Ann-Frédérik Naud (Joliette, Que./Stanstead College, NAPHA) and breaking through the American defence before beating U.S. goaltender Skylar Vetter.

The United States stormed back to tie the game with two quick goals before the five-minute mark of the middle frame.

Dominique Petrie forced a turnover at the Canadian blue-line and tucked a shot past netminder Raygan Kirk (Ste. Anne, Man./Eastman, MFMHL) at 4:08, and Abbey Murphy converted another breakaway just 14 seconds after that to make it 2-2.

Kirk was huge for Canada in the second period, making several key stops to keep the game tied, including a sprawling save to stonewall Casey O’Brien on a two-on-one.

Murphy scored her second of the game to break the tie early in the third. With the Americans cycling in the Canadian end, Murphy took a feed from O’Brien and fired it home from the point.

Canada pushed hard to find the equalizer, but couldn’t solve Vetter.

The U.S. finished with a 23-20 advantage in shots on goal.

Canada will look to get back in the win column and secure a bye to the semifinals when it close out the preliminary round Tuesday against Russia (11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT).