Canada had faced Japan only once in the Under-18 Women’s World Championship, in March 2014. The score was 7-1 to Canada. In 2025, Canada scored seven goals in the first period and 17 in total.

Maxine Cimoroni scored a hattrick and collected five points, which make her the leading scorer of the tournament. Stryker Zablocki, now the leading goal scorer in the tournament, also scored a hat-trick, and Caileigh Tiller collected five points as did Chloe Primerano. 

The record for most goals in a game is, still, 18, held by the US team from the 2009 tournament. Team Canada 2025 is now tied for second.  

“Our good habits and attention to details have made us successful and the players did a pretty good job with that today, and they didn't try to do something just because they could," Team Canada coach Vicky Sunohara said. 
 
Primerano, last year's tournament's leading scorer, showed the way by scoring two goals and picking up two assists in the first period, tying the tournament all-time record for most points in a period (with Natalie Spooner, Sara Sakkinen, Tereza Pistekova, and Tereza Plosova). 
 
Primerano started the scoring at 3.31 with a great shot under Kuromaru’s glove. Maxine Cimoroni was credited with the assist. 
 
Thirty-four seconds the puck was behind Kuromaru again, when Caileigh Tiller slammed in a Stryker Zablocki rebound from the doorstep. 
 
Two minutes later Sara Manness forced her way through the Japanese defense and fired a wrister off the post and in. Tiller scored her second on powerplay at 9.39, when a rebound landed right at her feet at the doorstep. 
 
Zablocki and Tiller got on a 2-on-1 halfway through the period. Tiller sent the puck to Zablocki who made it 5-0 at 10.59. 
 
Primerano scored her second of the game and fourth point of the period with a snapshot from the right faceoff dot that beat Kuromaru on the blocker side at 16.02.          
 
With 1.06 remaining in the period, Kuromaru lost the puck for a second after making a save at the other post. Sofia Ismael found it and scored her first of the tournament with a wraparound, making it 7-0 after the first 20 minutes. 

“Sydney [Sawyer] skated it in, I was behind her, she dropped it to me and I passed it to Ava Wood in front, and I saw the puck loose behind the net, and got around quickly. I saw the opportunity and took it,” Ismael said. 
 
Japan made a goalie change in the intermission, and Rio Suzuki came in. She allowed her first goal 1.07 into the period, when Ismael and Tiller found Sydney Sawyer all by herself at the far post to tap in the 8-0 goal. 
 
Canada’s ninth goal was also a powerplay goal, scored by Zablocki, with a snapshot off a cross-ice pass from Cimoroni at 3.10. 
 
Maddie McCullough made it 10-0 after a nice tic-tac-toe with Ismael and Anais Leprohon, before Cimoroni scored twice. First with 8.41 remaining to make it a dozen, and then four minutes later with a deflection from the doorstep to for 13-0. 
 
Just twenty seconds later, Rachel Piggott shoveled in a rebound to score her first of the tournament and Canada’s 14th in the game. With Piggott’s goal, all Canadian skaters have now recorded a point in the tournament. 

“We stuck to our habits the whole time. There are no selfish players on our team,” said Ismael. 
 
Zablocki was the first Canadian to score a hat trick when she jammed the puck into the Japanese net at 1.12 into the third period. 

Cimoroni picked up the second hatty with 11.57 remaining in the game. She drove to the net from the right and fired a laser that beat Suzuki. Hayley McDonald sealed the final score with 2.52 remaining. 

“We’ve been able to roll four lines and six defenders all season long, and today wasn’t really that much different, but, for sure, we wanted to give everyone ice time," Sunohara said. 

Canada will face Czechia in the semifinal on Saturday.