France 3-Denmark 1

France got into the win column on Day 2 of the Women’s U18 World Championship Division I-A with a strong win over Denmark, which lost its second straight game. Only the fine goaltending of Anja Poulsen prevented a higher score as the French peppered her with 36 shots while Violette Pianel Couriaut face only 16 Danish shots.
 
Louise Apertet opened the scoring at 7:42 with her first goal of the tournament, and the French never looked back. They added two more early in the second to put the game out of reach when Marleen Origlio and Clara Piazzon scored less than four minutes apart.
 
The Danes played their best period of the tournament so far in the second but couldn’t beat Poulsen. It wasn’t until late in the third that Olivia Olesen broke Poulsen’s shutout streak of 68:23 dating back to the third period of the first game. The Danes have now scored just two goals in as many games and have a critical game on Tuesday when they face winless Hungary. The winner will get out of last place and move one step closer to avoiding relegation.

Austria 4-Italy 3 (5:00 OT/PSS)

Defender Artemis Tekin had a goal and assist and Laura Nagy scored the only goal of a lengthy 14-shot shootout to give Austria a 4-3 win over hosts Italy. It was Austria’s second win in as many days while Italy suffered its first defeat and is now 1-1.
 
In a game between two teams who were in I-A last year, a quiet first period game way to a huge second period in which Italy raced out to a 3-0 lead. Manuela Heidenberger, who had three points in the team’s 4-0 win over Hungary yesterday, kept her torrid pace with the game’s first goal early in the middle frame.
 
Less than six minutes later, Matilde Fantin scored her tournament-leading fourth goal to double the lead, and she scored again midway through the period as well. The turning point came in the final minute when Austria finally got on the board, Hanna Danninger scoring with just 25 seconds remaining to give her team some momentum going into the final period.
 
Tekin scored early in the third to cut the lead to one, and then the Austrians tied the game late. It wasn’t a power-play goal exactly, but Gloria Henek scored one second after an Alessandra Weber boarding penalty had expired and before Weber could get back into the play.
 
Five minutes of overtime settled nothing, and Nagy finally won the game with a shot that beat Margherita Ostoni.

Japan 2-Hungary 0

Japan stayed perfect with a shutout victory over Hungary to close out the day’s play. Haruka Kuramaru, by far the busier of the goalies, stopped all 37 shots she faced for the shutout, while the winning Japanese managed only 22 shots at Noemi Takacs.
 
Both goals came late in the first period. Nana Akimoto opened the scoring at 15:42, and just two and a half minutes later Ai Tada doubled Japan’s lead on a power play. The rest of the game was a chess match, neither team able to put the puck in the net.
 
Coach Botond Bedo, now in his fifth year with Hungary’s WW18 program, pulled Takacs with more than two minutes to play, but to no avail. Hungary has yet to score in two games but must find a way to put one in against the Danes if they are to remain in contention in the round robin.
 
NOTES: All teams have a day off Monday. On Tuesday, action starts with Denmark-Hungary, followed by Japan-Austria and Italy-France.