The North American nation beat their neighbours in the gold medal match at the LaBahn Ice Arena in Madison to win their sixth championship, and now lie just two behind the US in the all-time medals table.

Alexia Aubin opened the scoring for Canada just over five minutes into the game, and the scoreline remained unchanged until just past the midway mark of the second period when a strike from Ava Murphy found the back of the net.

Canada further extended their lead when Jocelyn Amos jumped on a rebound just under a minute later, and although the US threatened a late comeback with quickfire goals from Finley McCarthy and Claire Enright, the 2020 runners-up held on to go one better and dethrone their opponents.

"We knew what we had to do," Murphy said. 

"We had to stick together and work on the habits that we have been working on this whole tournament. 

"We talked about getting pucks on net, so when the puck came to my stick, I knew what I had to do."

They had reached the final after finishing an underwhelming third in Group A in the preliminary round, before a thumping 7-0 win over Slovakia in the quarter-finals and 2-1 victory over Finland in the semis.

In the bronze medal match, Finland picked themselves up to defeat Sweden 3-0 courtesy of a Sanni Vanhanen hat-trick. 

Tereza Plosova of the Czech Republic ended the tournament with the most goal contributions, notching three goals and seven assists in five matches.