The penultimate day of the tournament came about with a pair of shutouts to the only two teams who have won gold and silver. Tonight Canada and the United States face off for the gold for the ninth consecutive time, every gold medal game in the tournament's history.
Sweden will try to keep Russia from winning back to back bronzes.
You can stream the bronze medal game at HockeyCanada.ca, the gold medal game will be streaming in the US on NHL.com and aired in Canada on TSN2
Semi-Final recaps:
USA 4 - Sweden 0 - Full recap here
"Now that we're there, we're excited, and we want to win the gold," Heising said. "We knew Sweden was going to be a tough game. They lost only 3-1 Canada in an exhibition game before the tournament, but we came out hard and played well."
Although the United States scored the only goal of the opening period, the Swedes played with impressive calm. The goal came on a giveaway in the Swedish end, culminating with a nice shot by Heising over the glove of Jonsson.
Canada 4 - Russia 0 - Full recap here
"We didn't expect Canada to start as strong as they were," admitted captain Fanuza Kadirova, the team's top scorer. "They moved better than the first game. They were flying."
The first period was a bruising affair complete with physical play and hard contact on puck pursuit. Maltais drew a kneeing penalty early in the game after a tough collision with Kadirova. Kadirova was down for a while and missed a few shifts but returned later in the period looking strong. Still, she was ineffective all game.
"I didn't expect them to give me so little room," she admitted. "It was very difficult because they played with such intensity."
Scoring Leaders:
Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PPG |
Alina Muller | SUI | 5 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 1.8 |
Rahel Enzler | SUI | 5 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.4 |
Rebecca Gilmore | USA | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1.5 |
Petra Nieminen | FIN | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1.2 |
Ashton Bell | CAN | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.5 |
Goal Leaders:
Player | Team | GP | G | S | S% | GPG |
Alina Muller | SUI | 5 | 7 | 28 | 25 | 1.4 |
Rebecca Gilmore | USA | 4 | 4 | 9 | 44 | 1 |
Natalie Snodgrass | USA | 4 | 4 | 18 | 22 | 1 |
Fanuza Kadirova | RUS | 5 | 4 | 20 | 20 | 0.8 |
Petra Nieminen | FIN | 5 | 4 | 35 | 11 | 0.8 |
U18 Division 1:
The U18 Division 1 tournament wraps up tomorrow. It's a total points round robin tournament and right now Japan is in the lead to be moved up to the main group:
Rank | Team | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | +/- | Pts |
1 | Japan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2 | +15 | 12 |
2 | Slovakia | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 6 | +10 | 9 |
3 | Germany | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 6 | +10 | 9 |
4 | Norway | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 11 | +3 | 6 |
5 | Denmark | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 17 | -15 | 0 |
6 | Hungary | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 24 | -23 | 0 |
If Japan loses to Norway, the winner of Germany-Slovakia would have to win by 5 goals plus the amount Japan scores over Norway, to take the top spot. The odds are very much in Japan's favour right now.
Hungary, the host, will be relegated to Div1 Qualifying next year.