U.S. women strike gold with 2-0 win over Canada in U18 world hockey championship
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SYDNEY – Canada’s unbeaten run at the Under-18 women’s world hockey championship came to an end Sunday.
Unfortunately, the impressive streak was halted in the gold-medal game against the United States.
Emily Pohl and Lindsay Stepnowski scored for the Americans and Talla Hansen chipped in with two assists as the U.S. won gold with a 2-0 win. It was the Americans’ 10th gold medal in the U-18 event and became the first team to go undefeated and never trail in a game.
Netminder Bianca Birrittieri of Flower Mound, Texas, named player of the game, stopped 38 shots to record the shutout. Lea-Rose Charrois stopped 25 shots in the Canadian net.
Jane Daley of Medfield, Mass., was named the tournament’s MVP, finishing with a tournament-record 12 goals.
“Our players have been training and buying in every day, all the time,” said U.S. coach Courtney Kennedy. “Watching them choose time and time again to play the right way, it melts your heart. You want them to get that (gold medal), they dream of it. I’ll be thinking about that for a while.”
Pohl gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead at 14:08 of the first period, and Stepnowski doubled the lead at 18:17 of the second.
Czechia beat Sweden 4-3 in Sunday’s bronze-medal final.
Canada went 3-0 in Group A’s preliminary round, beating Switzerland 9-0, Hungary 14-0 and Sweden 9-2. Canada then beat Finland 12-0 in the quarterfinals and knocked off Czechia 8-1 in the semifinals.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2026.