MADISON, Wis. — It had the makings of an early blowout, but the United States made adjustments on the fly Monday night and turned the gold-medal final at the under-18 women's world hockey championship into a real thriller.

But Canada, which built a 3-0 lead on goals by Alexia Aubin, Ava Murphy and Jocelyn Amos, were able to hold on and defeat the U.S. 3-2 at LaBahn Ice Arena on Monday night.

Finley McCarthy and Claire Enright scored second-period goals seven seconds apart to make the final period interesting.

The U-18 women's hockey championship was affected by a cancellation and a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was originally scheduled to take place in January in Linkoping and Mjolby, Sweden, before being postponed and moved.

The 2021 event, to be held in the same Swedish cities, was cancelled, while the world men's under-20 in Edmonton and men's under-18 championship in Frisco, Texas, went ahead as planned.

The International Ice Hockey Federation caused a backlash on social media when it announced the cancellation of the 2022 women's tournament two weeks out from its Jan. 8 start. The announcement came on the eve of the men's under-20 championship being back in Edmonton -- which lasted just four days because of COVID outbreaks.

The IIHF announced in March that the 2022 women's U18 championship would be moved and rescheduled rather than cancelled outright.

POKE CHECKS: Earlier in the day Finland defeated Sweden 3-0 in front of 2,273 spectators at LaBahn Ice Arena to claim the bronze medal. Sanni Vanhanen scored all three goals for the winners, while Emilia Kyrkko made 35 saves to record the shutout.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2022.