Story byKristen Lipscombe (Lippy)Sun, January 18, 2026 at 5:32 AM UTC·5 min readSYDNEY, N. S. — American forward Emily Pohl and blueliner Margaret Averill notched two goals and added two assists apiece to help lead the United States handily take the Swedes out of gold medal contention with a 9-1 win Saturday evening at the 2026 IIHF Under-18 Women's World Championship at Centre 200. Forward Jane Daley was one of five other players to put one on the scoreboard for the U. S., making her record-setting 12th goal of this year's tournament, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). She leads all players with 17 points total. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAverill and Pohl opened it up in the first to make it 2-0 going into the first intermission, forwards Jillian McLaughlin and Daley added a couple more in the second frame, followed by Averill and Pohl, and forward Madelyn Kimbrel putting it past the goal line with less tha a minute less in the second to make it 7-0 after 40 minutes. Three of those first seven goals were scored on American powerplays, including one on a five-on-three in the second, which included a two-minute interference from defender Ebba Westerlind and a five-minute spearing penalty, that came with a game misconduct, from forward Moa Stridh, served by fourth-liner Greta Johansson, which certainly didn't help the Swedish squad with the game off the ice — and perhaps their mentality on the ice. That being said, there were plenty of Swedish fans in the stands in the Cape Breton arena, wearing team jerseys, holding up brightly coloured signs, and cheering them on throughout, but the whoops and hollers were perhaps no louder than when Tilde Grillfors snuck one past American goalkeeper Bianca Birrittieri on a powerplay just over three minutes into the final frame, narrowing the gap to 7-1 for the U. S. Despite the Swedish support in the crowd, and the goalie change from starter Meja Engelin to Thea Holmberg going into the third period, there just wasn't enough time for the yellow and blue squad to catch up to the visibly stronger American team. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCentre Talla Hansen scored on an Averill assist and winger Lindsay Stephnowski capped it off with help from Pohl to seal the 9-1 deal and earn a berth to Sunday's gold medal game for the United States. Birrittieri didn't earn the shutout but made a solid 17 stops for the U. S., while Engelin made a respectable 25 saves on 32 shots against.