USA & Finland Prep for Final U18s Preliminary Game

Team USA and Finland are preparing for their final preliminary round game of the 2025 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship, where the two will face off against one another on Tuesday, January 7 at 10:00 a.m. ET (5 p.m. local). The other preliminary round game features Czechia and Canada.

Team USA heads into its final preliminary game with a perfect 2-0 record, while Finland has one win and one loss in the tournament so far.

USA Remains Perfect

Not only is Team USA 2-0 in the tournament so far, they've yet to give up a single goal against. A decisive 6-0 win kicked off U18s on January 4, with USA outshooting Japan 67-4 in the game.

Haley Box opened the scoring just 4:16 in, tapping in a rebound from the left of the net after the initial shot by Evelyn Doyle was stopped. Christina Scalese doubled the lead late in the period, making it 2-0 at 17:09 on a blast from just inside the circle to the goaltender's left.

USA scored three times in the second period, with Margaret Averill, Bella Fanale and Emilia Biotti all recording their firsts of the tournament. Averill scored on a blast from the point that got through a crowd, while Fanale's goal came as she slid in a loose puck that had popped off the post and careened off the goaltender's leg, sitting in the crease. Biotti then put her shot under the arm of the goaltender and into the net.

Japan elected to swap goaltenders at the start of the third period, with Rio Suzuki coming in to relieve Haruka Kuromaru. Kuromaru made 41 saves on 46 shots.

Mary Derrenbacher sealed the win with the sixth goal of the game 12:04 into the third period. Her shot appeared tipped, hit the far goalpost and bounced along inside the net. Derrenbacher and Box each finished the game with three points (1-2--3).

Morgan Stickney made four saves in net. For Japan, Suzuki finished the game with 20 saves on 21 shots in 20 minutes of ice time.

USA followed up their win over Japan with a 3-0 victory over Sweden on Sunday, a much tighter contest than the prior. The game remained scoreless more than halfway through, with Scalese putting USA on the board at 11:45 of the second period, beating the goaltender up and over her leg following a failed clearing attempt.

Evelyn Doyle and Kylie Amelkovich also scored in the third period to complete the win. Doyle's power play goal resulted from a second effort at the doorstep of the net, as she was able to shovel in a loose puck that had made its way behind Maja Helge's five hole. Amelkovich capitalized on an empty net with just 22 seconds left in regulation.

Stickney was perfect again, this time on 21 shots.

Finland Rallies Back

Finland opened its U18 tournament with a 2-1 overtime loss to Sweden on January 4. After each team took several penalties in the first half of the game, Edit Danielsson opened the scoring at 11:35 of the second period for Sweden.

Senja Siivonen tied it on the power play 7:11 into the third, deflecting and redirecting a point shot from the slot. Unfortunately for Finland, Ebba Westerlind scored just 2:30 into overtime to secure the win for Sweden. Kerttu Kuja-Halkola had 32 saves on 34 shots against.

Finland doubled up Japan in both goals and shots on January 5, securing a 4-2 win and outshooting the opponent by a 28-14 margin.

After Japan's Umeka Odaira opened the scoring, Julia Kuhta tied it on the power play with just 39 seconds left in the first period. Kuhta's shot from the faceoff circle to the left of the goaltender found the back of the net, off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Abigail Byskata.

Finland found itself down 2-1 going into the final frame, but rallied back and came out with the win. Eva Lamberg tied it at 5:23 of the third on the power play on a bouncing shot that was redirected over the goaltender's shoulder, before Yenna Kolmonen gave Finland its first lead at 16:42. The game-wnning goal came on a 1-v-1 opportunity that saw Kolmonen deke around the Japanese defender, causing her to fall to the ice as she tried to poke the puck off her stick.

Vilma Nurmisto added an empty-netter late to seal the win, while Kuja-Halkola had 12 saves.

What to Watch

• Christina Scalese, Haley Box and Mary Derrenbacher each have three points (1-2--3), while Emilia Biotti is tied for the scoring lead among defenders (1-1--2).
• Yenna Kolmonen, Elli Pohjanaho and Tinja Tapani lead Finland with two points each. Tapani is just 15 years old - still not the youngest player on her team, though - and is the cousin of Boston Fleet forward Susanna Tapani.
• Finland is looking for its first U18s medal since 2022. Each of the last two years, Finland lost in the semifinals. The United States has medaled in every tournament and is hoping to repeat its gold medal from 2024.