Canada taking on Czechia headlines semifinal action at the Women's U18 Worlds
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The Women's under-18 World Championship continues from Switzerland on Saturday with Canada taking on Czechia in the semifinals.
Canada enters the semis after going 3-0-0-0 in the preliminary round to win Group A, only allowing one goal.
They are coming off a 6-0 blowout win over host Switzerland in the quarter-finals on Thursday that saw forward Sienna D'Alessandro score a pair of goals.
Gracie Graham contributed a goal and two assists while fellow defenceman Chloe Primerano added three assists.
Goaltender Rhyah Stewart picked up the shutout, making three saves. She has a 2-0-0 record with a .963 save percentage and 0.50 goals-against average in the tournament.
Fellow goalie Hannah Clark also has a 2-0-0 record and didn't allow a goal in either of her games.
Canada has six players in the top 10 in tournament scoring, including Primerano who leads the way with five goals and 12 points in four games.
Forward Caitlin Kraemer lead the tournament in goal scoring with eight goals in four games followed by D'Alessandro, Finland's Emma Ekoluoma, and Czechia's Adela Sapovalivova who each have seven goals.
Czechia comes into the semifinals after scoring two goals in the final 10 minutes of the third period to beat Sweden 4-2 in the quarter-finals.
Sapovalivova recorded two goals for Czechia while forward Tereza Plosova added a goal and two assists.
Goaltender Aneta Senkova took the win, making 22 of 24 saves. She has a 2-1-0 record with an .889 save percentage and 2.01 goals-against average for the tournament.
Czechia finished third in Group A with a 1-2-0-0 record.
Sapovalivova leads Czechia in scoring with seven goals and eight points followed up by Plosova who has a goal and seven points.
Canada and Czechia faced each other earlier in the tournament, which ended in a 10-0 victory for the Canadians.
United States battles Finland
The United States try to return to the gold-medal game as they take on Finland in the other semifinal matchup on Saturday.
USA is looking for revenge after failing to reach the final in last year's tournament, losing a narrow 2-1 game to Sweden in the semifinals.
The Americans won Group B with a 3-0-0-0 record and only allowed two goals.
Josie St. Martin scored two goals to lead the United States to a 4-0 win over Germany in their quarter-final matchup on Thursday.
Margaret Scannell and Haley Box also recorded goals while Jordyn Petrie added two assists.
Goaltender Natalia Dilbone recorded seven saves for the shutout victory in her only appearance in the tournament.
Layla Hemp started all three games for the United States in the preliminary round, going 3-0 with a .962 save percentage and 0.67 GAA.
St. Martin leads USA in scoring with four goals and seven points followed by Scannell with three goals and seven points.
Finland is trying to reach the gold-medal game for the first time in the tournament's history.
They enter the semifinals after narrowly defeating Slovakia 2-0 in Thursday's quarter-final.
Ekoluoma led the way for Finland with a goal and an assist while Abigail Byskata had a pair of assists.
Forward Julia Kuusisto also scored for Finland.
Kerttu Kuja-Halkola made 19 saves to get the shutout victory. She has a 3-1 record with a .914 save percentage and 2.01 GAA in the tournament.
Finland finished in second place in Group A with a 2-1-0-0 record.
Ekoluoma is tied for second in tournament scoring with Canada's Abby Stonehouse with seven goals and nine points.