Canadians win seventh gold medal

Canada gave their Swedish opponents no chance on Sunday in the final of the World Under-18 Championship in Ostersund, Sweden. The Maple Leaf representatives quickly built a four-goal lead early in the first period en route to a convincing 10-0 victory.

“We were really surprised by the turn of events. We didn’t expect to lead by so many goals at the start of the match. We really wanted to go for the win and it showed from the start of the match. We wanted to play simple games because in hockey, nothing is decided until the very end of the game,” said Quebecer Éloïse Caron in a telephone interview with Sportcom following the victory.

“This is my first international gold medal and I will never forget that moment,” she added.

It was Caitlin Kraemer who opened the scoring early with two goals in under 25 seconds to give Canada the lead. Quebecer Alexia Aubin added a few minutes later before Maya Serdachny scored the Maple Leaf’s fourth goal on the power play.

Kraemer added a third goal before the end of the first period. In addition to knocking goaltender Felicia Frank out of the game, this goal allowed Kraemer to break Marie-Philip Poulin’s record for the most goals by a Canadian player in a World Under-18 Championship. years.

“Caitlin is an exceptional teammate, it’s fun to be on the ice with her and I’m not surprised to see her breaking records here. I’m also very happy to see Alexia succeed, we had an incredible team,” said Caron.

The Canadians didn’t slow down in the second period as Alexia Aubin took advantage of a breakaway to score her second goal of the game. Abby Lunney and Mackenzie Alexander also scored before the end of the middle frame to make it 8-0.

Charlotte Pieckenhagen scored the ninth goal before Caitlin Kraemer added a fourth in the game. Her 10th goal of the tournament equals Slovak Nela Lopusanova’s tally as the competition’s top scorers.

Canadian goaltender Hannah Clark blocked all 21 shots aimed at her for the shutout. Arianne Leblanc acted as a substitute for this meeting.

This is the seventh gold medal for Canada at the Under-18 World Championship. The most recent conquest of the maple leaf occurred in June 2022.

The Canadians have not suffered a loss in the 2023 edition of the tournament. To reach the final, they defeated the Finns in the semi-finals by a score of 3 to 2 in a duel that required extra time.

“The semi-final shook us up, we didn’t want to end up in another overtime situation in the final and I think in the end we were motivated by Saturday’s game once morest Finland on our way to our medal. gold,” concluded Éloïse Caron.

The United States took the bronze medal by beating Finland 5-0 earlier on Sunday.