Five takeaways from the 2024 Women’s U-18’s Group Stage: Canada dominates, Sweden impresses

There have been notable performances in the opening days of the 2024 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championships, with a couple of favorites and underdogs rising to the surface.

Here are a few takeaways following the group stage in Switzerland:

Canada is really, really good

While they are always a favorite in any tournament they play in, no one could have expected how easy Canada made things look in the preliminary round.

The Canadians put up double-digits in their wins over Germany and Finland on their way to finishing atop Group A. They outscored their competition, 29-1, the most goals by the country since they potted 38 in the opening round of the inaugural U-18s back in 2008.

Chloe Primerano is making the most of her first experience on the world stage. The first ever female to be taken in the WHL Bantam Draft, Primerano comes into the quarterfinals leading the tournament with nine points. The Minnesota commit potted a hat trick against the Fins on Tuesday, becoming the first defender in tournament history to accomplish the feat.

Caitlin Kraemer picked up right where she left off from last year’s tournament, scoring seven goals in the first three games, surpassing the great Marie-Philip Poulin for the most goals scored by a Canadian at the women’s U-18s.

The key for Canada will be not to get overconfident in the medal round, something that almost bit them in their semifinal clash with Finland last year.

Canada will play Switzerland in the quarters on Thursday.

United States is forced to battle

The Americans went undefeated in Group B, but it was not as easy as they thought.

In their first game, they were tied with Slovakia heading into the third period, thanks to some great saves by Slovak netminder Livia Debnarova. Thankfully, the U.S. exploded for six in the final frame, including five in just over four minutes, to grab the win.

In the final group stage game, they got revenge on last year’s semifinal loss to Sweden with a 4-0 win in the group stage finale, but were beneficiaries of a missed offsides call early in the second period that put the Americans up by two.

The U.S. was good at finishing opponents in the preliminary round, but needs to get on top of teams early on in order to avoid another stunning loss in the knockout stage.

Maggie Scannell ended up leading the Americans with six points, while Morgan McGathey was one of four players to register five.

The United States has a favorable path in the medal round, taking on Germany in the quarters on Thursday.

Sweden is right there again

Speaking of the Swedes, a better call here, and another bounce there, and they might have snagged first place in Group B.

What some might not see in the shutout loss to the Americans was Tre Kronor barely getting outshot, 35-28. Even when they trailed by two, Hilda Svensson and Ella Hellman had glorious scoring chances to get back into the game.

Sweden was very strong in their other two games, taking advantage of their opportunities against the Swiss, and thwarting off the pesky Slovaks on Monday. Svensson and Hellman played a lot together on a line with Isabelle Leijonhielm, with the trio combining for 17 points. Svensson led the Swedes with four goals.

The key player that will determine whether Sweden contends for gold is goaltender Maja Helge. The Frolunda product made 31 saves against the Americans, and ended up allowing five goals on 70 shots in two starts. If she can just make one or two more big saves, the impending semifinal matchup with Canada could be interesting.

This wave of young talent is vital to the eventual success for the senior national team in Sweden, which has taken a back seat to the likes of Finland and Czechia in recent years. Sweden will face Czechia in the quarterfinals.

Ekoluoma is a force

Though Finland was blown out by Canada, 10-0, to end the group stage, they have a lot to be excited about heading into medal round, thanks to the play of one player.

Kärpät product Emma Ekoluoma almost single-handedly helped Finland to their two wins on their way to finishing second in Group A. In the opening game, the 17-year-old scored a natural hat trick to help the Fins erase a 2-0 deficit against Czechia.

She followed up that performance with another hat trick against Germany, and ended up second in the tournament in goals (6), only trailing Kraemer.

The top line of her, Abigail Byskata and Julia Kuusisto will be the difference on whether or not Finland can make it to the semifinals. The three players were on Finland’s U-16 team that captured bronze at the U16 European Championship two seasons ago, with the three combining for 15 points so far in this tournament.

Finland will take on Slovakia in the quarterfinals.

Veterans keep Czechia in the fight

Out of the “bottom four,” Czechia has the best chance to pull off a stunner in the quarterfinals.

Though they blew a multi-goal lead to Finland, and their only win came against Germany, the Czechs were the lone team in Group A to keep Canada under 10 goals. Tournament veteran Adela Sapovalivova has led the charge with five goals and an assist, netting a hat trick against the Germans. Tereza Plosova is behind her with four assists in the group stage.

The duo have been a big part of the team’s success in the last couple of years, with Sapovalivova holding the record for most career points by a Czech in the tournament (21), while Plosova has scored 20 in three tournaments.

Similar to Finland’s top line, if Plosova and Sapovalivova are not contributing, it will be tough for Czechia to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2015.

It will be a difficult matchup for the Czechs, as they get Sweden on Thursday. The Swedes beat Czechia in the quarterfinals in Madison two years ago.