Russia have lost to Canada in the U18 women's WJC semi-finals

The semi-final of the women's 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship took place during the night between tournaments hosts Canada and Russia.

Russian head coach Alexander Ulyankin shifted the second and third lines around for this match, and confidence inside the camp was high after the superb 3:0 triumph against Finland in the quarter-final stage. Nevertheless the odds were against our team, especially after Canada had beaten Russia 5:2 in Group A.

It was a patriotic crowd inside the Meridian Centre, and right away Canada got about pressurizing our net. In the the first period alone they outshot our team 12-1, and midway through the frame Ashton Bell opened up the scoring. Our players managed to hang on until the second period at one down, but Ryleigh Houston notched their second minutes after 22 minutes.

Russia had to do something special in the third, and Alexander Ulyankin opted to pull goaltender Valeria Tarakanova in favour of Valeria Merkusheva. That didn't make much difference though, and Ashton Bell and Kayla Friesen rounded things off to give Canada a dominant 4:0 win.

Head coach Alexander Ulyankin:

- Our poor performance in defence led up to the four conceded goals. Tomorrow we will have the deciding game for the bronze medal, there is little time left before it but we will prepare.

Russian forward Elizaveta Zenchenko:

- Canada played pacy hockey right from the off, they didn't let us out of our zone. We really wanted to win,  but our nerves played their role. We will learn from our mistakes! In the bronze medal match we will get together and give Sweden a fight.

The match between Russia and Sweden for the bronze medal will take place at 00:00 on the 16th of January.

Match protocol:

Canada - Russia - 4:0 (1:0, 1:0, 2:0)

Goals:

1:0 Bell (Maltais, Cross), 09.55

2:0 Houston (Maltais, Agnew), 21.46

3:0 Bell (O'Neill), 42.31

4:0 Friesen (Frappier), 42.56

Goalkeepers: D Astous-Moreau - Tarakanova/Merkusheva

Shots on target: 43 - 12 

Penalty minutes: 4 - 8

15.01.2016. Meridian Centre, Saint Catharines, Canada.