London Devilettes players make impact in Team Canada U18 opening win

London’s Emma Pais got the Canadian crowd on its feet early in the first period, when she made a beautiful pass to set up the opening goal against Finland.

The Assistant Captain is one of five members or the London Devilettes who were part of Canada’s 8-0 blowout win over Finland in the opening game of the World Women’s U18 Hockey Championship in Sweden.

Back Home in London, Ont. Emma’s mother Heather Pais and close family were loving it at a watch party in their southwest London home.

"There's a little bit of pressure being the returning champions," says Heather.

"Obviously there's always a target on your back when you are wearing the maple leaf and you're a hockey player. But she's very excited to get the tournament going, and start today with a good result."

Pais is an assistant Captain, with teammate Jocelyn Amos of Ailsa Craig as serving as team captain.

Keira Hurry and Abby Stonehouse, both scored Sunday and Shelby Laidlaw is also on the squad.

The give of them spoke to TSN about chemistry of having five teammates. 

“A lot of us have played together for a really long time, so it's really cool that we get to kind of use that chemistry in this tournament” says Emma Pais told TSN.

“Especially being short competition, it's really important to have chemistry. So hopefully it's a good advantage."

A sign outside St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School shows support for student Emma Pais who is playing for Team Canada (Source: Heather Pais)Pais and Amos were part of Canada’s gold medal winning team back in the summer, when Amos scored the tournament winner.

"Me and Stoner (Abby Stonehouse) are line-mates back at home so we got some chemistry there, so hopefully carries over to here," says Amos.

While the five players are away, the games still continue. The Devilettes played in Oakville Saturday and Burlinton Sunday, but were able to watch the opening game of the U18 tournament on the bus on the way home to London.

Devilettes head coach Ted Brown feels it’s big for the organization to have this many players on the national stage.

"Anytime you can send five players to U18 Team Team Canada, it's extremely important to the organization," says Brown.

"It’s not only important to our team when we do recruiting, but when we have the background of that kind of success it's very easy to recruit new players."

It’s expected to a Canada-USA rematch from the gold medal game last tournament. Canada’s next match is Monday against Sweden on TSN, before facing the Americans WednesdayMeet the captains! 🇨🇦