The USA U18 women took the Gold at the 2015 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Buffalo. They defeated rival Canada 3–2 in overtime.
The week-long series came to a close Monday evening with all the fanfare of an Olympic game. The game opened with flag bearers from the Buffalo Bisons and Buffalo Regals girl’s teams.
Canada opened the scoring at 3:14 of the first period off the stick of Shae Labbe. With 33 seconds left in the first period USA Captain Jincy Dunne scored, unassisted; ending the first period tied at 1.
USA put in the third goal of the game when Alyssa Gorecki scored, assisted by Presley Norby and Alex Woken. Canada answered right back three minutes later ending the second period at a 2-2 tie.
The third was a list of penalities being piled up by Team Canada and the third ended tied at 2 with 40 shots on goal for the US and 18 for Canada.
Dunne put in the game winner just minutes into the overtime period followed by players, helmets and sticks flying over the ice and into a pile. The celebration began.
Russia took the Bronze for the first-time ever in the consolation game and the US took the Gold for the first-time in the Championship.
Canadian Goalie Marlene Boissonnault and USA’s Dunne too Player of the Game honors.
Also honored for their tournament play were Canadian players Micah Hart, Elizabeth Giguere and Sarah Potomak; for the USA is was Dunne, Melissa Samoskevich and Kaitlin Burt.
The top three players of the Tournament were in Goal Russia’s Valeria Tarakanova, Defenseman USA’s Jincy Dunne and Forward Canada’s Sarah Potomak.
Making the presentations following the gold medal game was Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Ted Nolan.
