CHICAGO, Ill. – Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team has finished on top of Group B at the 2010 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship, advancing directly to Friday’s semifinals after an 8-0 victory over Sweden in its preliminary round finale on Tuesday.

Canada also recorded wins over Russia (6-3) and Germany (15-0) in preliminary round play. It will now await the result of Wednesday afternoon’s Finland-Germany quarter-final to find out who it will face in the semifinals.

On Tuesday, Canada got goals from eight different players as it continued its offensive roll. Brigette Lacquette (Waterhen, Man./Pursuit of Excellence, Midget AAA) scored once and added three assists to pace the offence, while Erin Ambrose (Keswick, Ont./Toronto, PWHL) contributed four helpers.

Christine Bestland (Brunkild, Man./Pursuit of Excellence, Midget AAA), Sarah Davis (Paradise, N.L./Warner Academy, JWHL), Kelly Terry (Whitby, Ont./Whitby, PWHL), Jessica Campbell (Melville, Sask./Pursuit of Excellence, Midget AAA), Hannah Armstrong (Sharon, Ont./Aurora, PWHL), Jenna McParland (Schreiber, Ont./Toronto, PWHL) and Laurie Kingsbury (Valleyfield, Que./Saint-Laurent, Collégial AA) also put their names on the scoresheet for Canada.

In Group A, the United States finished first with an unblemished 3-0 record and will play the winner of the Sweden-Japan quarter-final in Friday’s other semifinal. The winners of the semifinals will meet in the gold medal game, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Saturday night.

All of the games at the 2010 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship, including the bronze medal game and gold medal game, are available via webcast for just $6.99 per game through FASTHockey at www.fasthockey.com.