Manitoba trio seeks redemption at world U18 hockey tournament

Manitoba trio seeks redemption at world U18 hockey tournament

The national U18 national women’s hockey team, with 17-year-old Manitobans Hayley McDonald and twins Kate and Sara Manness on the roster, will be out to reclaim Canada’s place at the top of the world podium beginning Saturday in Vantaa, Finland.

A year ago, Canada appeared to be well on its way to a world U18 crown in Zug, Switzerland, but there was a small flaw in that plan.

A 4-2 loss to Czechia in the tournament semifinals, despite a 47-12 edge in shots on goal, cost the Canadians a chance at the gold medal after they had outscored their opponents 29-1 in three round-robin games before thumping Switzerland 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

Canada went on to earn a bronze medal, beating Finland 8-1 in the third-place game.

“Obviously, we want to win the gold and redeem ourselves from last year and I think we have the team to do that,” said McDonald, a 17-year-old forward from East St. Paul who plays for the Rink Hockey Academy (Kelowna) of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.

The current edition of Team Canada, which has spent the past week in Finland preparing for Saturday’s opening game at the worlds, posted a 7-0 triumph over the host Finns in its lone pre-tournament game on Wednesday.

Linemates McDonald and Sara Manness chipped in with an assist each against the Finns while Kate Manness, a blue-liner, collected a goal and an assist.

Sara Manness, now suiting up with her sister for Burlington Barracudas of the Ontario Women’s Hockey League’s U22 division, is one of five players returning from last year’s bronze-medal-winning Canadian squad.

Sara has 10 goals and 25 points in 16 games with the Barracudas thus far, while Kate is in the midst of an excellent season with three goals and 19 points in 24 games.

McDonald and the Manness twins, who hail from La Salle and have committed to attend Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., all previously played for the Balmoral Hall Blazers prep team in Winnipeg.

McDonald has thrived since transferring to RHA Kelowna, scoring 18 goals and 38 points in 20 games.

“I think I did pretty well,” said McDonald. “I was able to showcase my skills at the (Hockey Canada) summer camp and then made the (Canada-U.S.) series and then had a great nationals and got chosen for the worlds team.”

McDonald developed some chemistry on a line with Ontario’s Maxine Cimoroni, a fellow OSU commit, and Sara Manness during the Canada-U.S. Series (won by Canada 2-1) and hopes the trio will remain intact for the worlds.

In October, McDonald reached a major milestone by choosing to attend Ohio State University on a hockey scholarship in 2025-26, over other offers from the heavyweight programs such as the University of Connecticut, Minnesota, Boston University and Boston College.

“It was definitely a tough decision,” said McDonald. “I talked to Maxine Cimoroni a little bit, and she kept bugging me about committing to Ohio State and telling me all the good things about it,” said McDonald. “And then their coach was just so amazing, I just couldn’t say no.”

The Canadians will take on Slovakia Saturday and Switzerland Sunday in preliminary round action as they look to unseat defending champion U.S.

Canada has won seven gold medals at the U18 worlds (2010, ‘12, ‘13, ‘14, ‘19, ‘22, ‘23), seven silver (2008, ‘09, ‘11, ‘15, ‘16, ‘17, ‘20) and two bronze (2018, ‘24).

TSN will broadcast 14 tournament games, including all of Team Canada’s preliminary-round games, all four quarter-finals, both semifinals and the medal games.

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