2017-18 National Women's Under-18 Team

CANADA DOWNED BY U.S. TO FINISH PRELIMS AT U18 WORLDS

JASON LA ROSE

DMITROV, Russia - Maggie Connors (St. John's, N.L./Shattuck-St. Mary's, USHS) and Audrey-Anne Veillette (Drummondville, Que./Stanstead College, NAPHA) scored goals, but Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team closed out the preliminary round at the 2018 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship with a 6-2 loss to the United States on Tuesday.

The defeat means the Canadians will play in a quarter-final on Wednesday. Who and when they play to open the medal round will be decided once the prelim schedule concludes later Tuesday.

Canada fell into an early 1-0 hole when Dominique Petrie stuffed a loose puck past goaltender Kendra Woodland (Kamloops, B.C./Thompson, OMAHA) just shy of the eight-minute mark, but Connors finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with Lexie Adzija (St. Thomas, Ont./Oakville, PWHL) and Sarah Fillier (Georgetown, Ont./Oakville, PWHL) to tie the game at 11:44.

A slow start to the second period sunk the Canadians; the U.S. struck for three goals in six minutes to open a big lead they would not relinquish.

Casey O'Brien gave the Americans back the lead only 82 seconds into the second period, tapping in a feed at the top of the crease, before Allyson Simpson banked the 3-1 goal off a Canadian skate and past Woodland.

Taylor Heise swept in a rebound at 7:29 to make it a three-goal lead and chase Woodland, who was replaced by Madelyn McArthur (St. Catharines, Ont./Oakville, PWHL) after allowing four goals on 20 shots.

Heise added her second of the period with less than two minutes to go, capitalizing on an odd-man rush to put the Canadians down four after 40 minutes.

The teams traded goals in the third period; Abigail Murphy scored the sixth American marker with 6:32 left, driving to the net and beating McArthur on the backhand, before Veillette tucked in a wraparound on the power play in the final minutes.