It had the makings of an early blowout, but the United States made adjustments on the fly Monday night and turned the gold-medal final at the under-18 women’s world hockey championship into a real thriller.
But Canada, which built a 3-0 lead on goals by Alexia Aubin, Ava Murphy and Jocelyn Amos, were able to hold on and defeat the U.S. 3-2 at LaBahn Ice Arena on Monday night.
Finley McCarthy and Claire Enright scored second-period goals seven seconds apart to make the final period interesting.
The U-18 women’s hockey championship was affected by a cancellation and a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was originally scheduled to take place in January in Linkoping and Mjolby, Sweden, before being postponed and moved.
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The 2021 event, to be held in the same Swedish cities, was cancelled, while the world men’s under-20 in Edmonton and men’s under-18 championship in Frisco, Texas, went ahead as planned.
The International Ice Hockey Federation caused a backlash on social media when it announced the cancellation of the 2022 women’s tournament two weeks out from its Jan. 8 start. The announcement came on the eve of the men’s under-20 championship being back in Edmonton — which lasted just four days because of COVID outbreaks.
The IIHF announced in March that the 2022 women’s U18 championship would be moved and rescheduled rather than cancelled outright.