VANTAA 鈥� Stryker Zablocki scored twice and Marilou Grenier made 20 saves as sa国际传媒 blanked Czechia 5-0 Tuesday at the world women's under-18 hockey championship.
sa国际传媒 finished the preliminary round in top spot in Group B with nine points from three regulation wins and will face Japan in Thursday's quarterfinals.
Sydney Sawyer had a goal and an assist for sa国际传媒, while Alex Therien and Ana茂s Leprohon also scored.
鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to understand that our goals aren鈥檛 going to come from being fancy or skating around the perimeter," sa国际传媒 head coach Vicky Sunohara said. We have been talking about attacking the middle, getting pucks through and winning net-front battles. I think we鈥檙e doing a better job of getting to those areas.
'(The players) are seeing that when we do that, when we outwork their defence and their goalie, that we鈥檙e having some success."
Daniela Novakova stopped 39 shots for Czechia, which finished second in Group B with five points and will face Finland in the quarterfinals.
sa国际传媒 is looking for its eighth championship at the event. The United States won in 2024 after sa国际传媒 won the previous two titles.
In other results Tuesday, the U.S. shut out Finland 5-0 and finished atop Group A, winning all three of its preliminary-round games.
Elsewhere, Switzerland beat Slovakia 5-3 and Sweden edged Japan 5-4 in overtime.
The U.S. will play Slovakia and Sweden will face Switzerland in Thursday's other quarterfinals.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2025.
The Canadian Press
