Canada Crushes Japan 9-0 at Women's Worlds: Teenagers Lead the Rout as Gascon Posts Debut Shutout

Photo: Canada in action during the Canada–US Rivalry Series in Saskatoon, February 2024 — Other_justin, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo, not from this tournament.

It took Canada six and a half minutes to get going in Herning on Sunday. After that, Japan never really had a chance. Chloe Primerano, a 19-year-old defender playing in her first World Championship, picked up the puck and did it herself, beating Riko Kawaguchi at 6:29 to open the scoring. From there the goals came in waves, and by the time the horn sounded on the third period the scoreboard read Canada 9, Japan 0.

The final number looks like a mismatch, and honestly it was. Canada outshot Japan 59-14, held the puck for long stretches, and had fifteen different players register a point. But the score hides the more interesting part of the afternoon: this was the game where Canada's youth movement stopped being a talking point from training camp and started being the story of the tournament.

Three teenagers, three first World Championship goals

Primerano's opener was the first of three firsts. Rosalie Tremblay, 18, scored her first Worlds goal in the second period after a Japanese turnover behind the net. Caitlin Kraemer, 20, added hers late in the third. Three teenagers, three first goals at this level, all in the same game. Tremblay finished tied for the team lead with six shots on goal, alongside Emma Maltais.

The veterans did their part too. Erin Ambrose doubled the lead in the first period with a shot from the slot. Daryl Watts scored on a two-player advantage early in the second and finished with a goal and an assist, the same line as Kendall Cooper. By the end of the first period Canada led 2-0. By the end of the second it was 4-0. Then the third period turned into a flood.

Five goals in twenty minutes

Canada scored five times in the third, including three goals in a 92-second span late in the game. Cooper scored on a rebound. Maltais went top shelf with a wrist shot. Sophie Jaques connected on the power play. Sarah Wozniewicz and Kraemer finished it off. Japan had played the night before, and it showed in the final frame — Canada outshot the Japanese 48-10 over the last two periods alone.

At the other end, Eve Gascon barely had to work, and that is exactly how a goalie wants it in her World Championship debut. The 23-year-old stopped all 14 shots she faced for the shutout, her first win and first shutout at the Worlds. Kawaguchi, meanwhile, stopped 49 shots for Japan and kept the score from climbing higher than it did. Canada went 2-for-8 on the power play; Japan went 0-for-3.

Canada stays perfect, and the group is theirs to lose

The result leaves Canada alone at the top of Group B with a 2-0 record and six points. Japan falls to 0-2. Canada has now beaten Japan in every meeting at the Women's World Championship, and the Canadians had outscored the Japanese 23-1 across their previous three meetings before Sunday — so nobody in Herning was shocked by the outcome. The surprise, if there was one, was how young the team doing the scoring looked.

Canada opened the tournament on Friday with a 5-1 win over Sweden, and the pattern across two games is now clear: this team can score from anywhere. Defenders accounted for four of the nine goals on Sunday. Fifteen players on the scoresheet in a single game tells you the depth is real, and depth is what wins tournaments that run two weeks.

The schedule does not slow down. Canada is right back at it on Monday at 1 p.m. ET against host Denmark, who sit at 0-1 and will have a loud home crowd behind them. Danish goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström has been one of the tournament's best so far, so Monday should be a sterner test than Sunday was. After that the group stage winds toward the quarterfinals, and Canada's path to the medal round is looking straightforward.

For now, though, the takeaway from Herning is simple. The kids can play. Primerano, Tremblay and Kraemer all scored their first Worlds goals on the same afternoon, Gascon kept a clean sheet in her debut, and Canada won 9-0 without ever looking like it was trying to run up the score. That is the kind of afternoon that builds a tournament.

Sources

• TSN / The Canadian Press — "Canada stays perfect at women's world hockey championship with big win over Japan" (November 8, 2026)
• Sportsnet / The Canadian Press — "Canada stays perfect at women's world hockey championship with rout of Japan" (November 8, 2026)
• The Hockey News — "Rosalie Tremblay And Canada's Young Elite Shine At Women's Worlds" (November 9, 2026)
• The Hockey News — "Canada, USA Continue To Roll, Sweden, Switzerland Pick Up Important Wins" (November 8, 2026)
• Daily Faceoff — "2026 IIHF Women's World Championship: Top standouts from Day 3" (November 8, 2026)
• IIHF — "Highlights: CANADA vs JAPAN | 2026 #WomensWorlds" (YouTube)