BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Nicole Gosling scored the winner as Canada opened the under-18 women's world championship with a 3-2 overtime victory against Russia on Thursday.
Gosling's goal 3:12 into the extra period salvaged the win for the Canadians after Russia scored twice in the third to erase a two-goal deficit and force overtime.
"I came right off the bench and decided I would just go for it. I made the call and got the puck, and now we're one step closer to our end goal," said Josling.
Ann-Frederik Naud opened the scoring with a minute to go in the first, and Maya Labad made it 2-0 Canada early in the second.
Kristi Shashkina scored back-to-back goals just over three minutes apart for Russia, with her first coming at the 10:35 mark to end Eve Gascon's shutout bid. Veronika Korzhakova assisted on both.
Gascon finished with 17 saves for Canada as Anna Alpatova stopped 33-of-35 shots for Russia.
"I thought we had a great start, lots of energy, and I thought we were executing a game plan that we had to execute against that team. Not trying to be too fancy and simplifying the game a little bit," said Canada coach Howie Draper.
Canada's next round-robin game is Friday against Finland. Elimination games at the eight-nation tournament begin Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2019.
The Canadian Press