United States wins the women’s ice hockey world championship final 4-3 in OT against Canada

United states players celebrate with a trophy after the gold medal match between Canada and United States at the Women's Ice Hockey Championships in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

CESKE BUDEJOVICE, Czech Republic — Tessa Janecke scored the winner as the United States prevailed in overtime over defending champion Canada 4-3 to win the women’s ice hockey world championship on Sunday.

Janecke struck with 2:54 left in overtime for the Americans to claim their 11th title at the worlds.

Taylor Heise set up the winning goal.

With Sarah Fillier going to the bench, Canadian defenseman Jocelyn Larocque was pressured behind the net and sent a pass up the boards, with Heise intercepting the pass at the right point inside the blue line and feeding Janecke to score into the open left side of the net.

Janecke immediately celebrated her third goal of the tournament by throwing her stick into the stands.

Abbey Murphy and Heise scored a goal and had an assist, and Caroline Harvey also scored for the U.S.

“Shock and awe,” U.S. goalie Gwyneth Philips said after the drama. “I’m ecstatic.”

Canada still leads the world tournament with 13 gold medals. The cross-border rivals have met in the championship game in all but one tournament, in 2019, when host Finland defeated Canada in the semifinal before losing to the U,S.

The U.S. cruised through the tournament, winning the preliminary group with four wins from four, including a 2-1 win over Canada, and eliminating Germany in the quarterfinals and Finland in the semifinals at the 12-day, 10-nation tournament in the southern Czech city of Ceske Budejovice.

Last big test

In the last major international test before the Milan Winter Games in February, the U.S. has now won two of the past three world championships, though Canada is the defending Olympic champion.

Danielle Serdachny, Jennifer Gardiner and Fillier scored for Canada which outshot the U.S. 47-30.

U.S. captain Hilary Knight recorded an assist to increase her record at the worlds to 53. She is the all-time scoring leader with 120 points. In her 15th world championship appearance, she won a record 10th gold medal.

Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin had an assist to top the scoring table at the tournament with 12 points from four goals and eight assists.

Classic encounter

In a classic encounter between the two archrivals, Fillier tied the game for Canada again at 3-3 with 5:48 remaining, forcing overtime.

Heise had restored a 3-2 lead for the Americans 5:27 into the final period with a wrist shot into the the top left corner of the net on a 5-3 power play.

U.S. goaltender Aerin Frankel had to be replaced by Philips 4:35 into the final period after a crash with Laura Stacey who received a penalty for charging, giving the Americans the 5-3 advantage.

After a goalless opening period, the U.S. jumped to a 2-0 lead with a couple of goals in the span of 29 seconds in the middle period.

Harvey put the U.S. ahead with a wrist shot through heavy traffic 7:16 into the period. Murphy doubled the advantage on a rebound after goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens was unable to hold the bouncing puck.

Canada’s answer was quick.

Serdachny one-timed a shot past Frankel to reduce the lead to 2-1 only 52 seconds after Murphy’s goal. Another 55 seconds later, Poulin was behind the net when she fed Gardiner unmarked in front of the goal to tie it at 2-2 with her sixth goal.