U-18 World Championships: Stellar Netminding And Overtime Thrillers Highlight Day One

The opening day of the U-18 World Championships are in the books. Here's a game-by-game recap of the action.

USA Shuts Out Japanese Team Looking To Avoid Relegation

Japan, playing their first game after earning promotion from the Division 1A tournament last year, found a difficult match up in Team USA. The shots showed the challenge for Japan as USA outshot the Japanese squad 67-4 in the game. Haley Box and Mary Derrenbacher were USA's leaders on the opening day of the IIHF U-18 World Championships. Both had a goal and two assists in USA's win. Also scoring for the Americans were Christina Scalese and Emilia Biotti who each had a goal and an assist, and Bella Fanale and Maggie Averill who each had a goal.

Sweden Shows They Continue To Improve

Were it not for the spectacular goaltending of Finland's Kerttu Kuja-Halkola, Sweden's 2-1 overtime win could have been a blowout. Sweden outshot Finland 34-17 in the game with the expected names hitting the scoresheet for the Swedes. To open the game Edit Danielsson broke down the left wing and fired a shot along the ice under Kuja-Halkola's left pad. In the third period, Finland's Senja Siivonen tied the game on goal the was tipped in the high slot off a point shot. Heading to overtime, Sweden won a draw cleanly in the neutral zone to Ebba Westerlind who walked down the left wall before cutting to the net where she slide a puck through Kuja-Halkola to give Sweden the win, and to silence the 1,592 fans in attendance to cheer on the home Finnish side.

Czechia Wins Overtime Thriller

In what looked like it might become the tournament's first upset, Czechia fought back to win in overtime against Switzerland. After two scoreless periods, Sonja Inkamp got Switzerland on the board just over seven minutes into the third period. With 2:08 on the clock, Czechia tied it on a goal by Viktorie Jilkova. Then, only 1:33 into overtime Julie Jebouskova won it for Czechia.

Floodgates Open Late For Canada Against Determined Slovakia

Canada didn't expect to enter the third period of their game against Slovakia tied 2-2. But that's where they were after Ema Tothova and Nela Lopusanova tallied for Slovakia. Slovak netminder Mariana Sumegova who plays in Quebec for Bourget College put in a heroic effort to keep Slovakia in the game, but once Canada opened the floodgates, they played to a 6-2 decision firing 60 shots on the Slovakian goalie. Canada got goals from six different players including Danica Maynard, Hayley MacDonald, Chloe Primerano, Kate Viel, Stryker Zablocki, and Maxine Cimeroni.