BEIJING — Hilary Knight had a objective and help, Alex Cavallini stopped 25 photographs, and the defending Olympic champion United States defeated Finland 4-1 within the girls’s hockey semifinals on the Beijing Video games on Monday to arrange the sixth gold-medal showdown between the People and Canada.
The cross-border rivals will play on Thursday after Canada erupted for 5 first-period targets over an Olympic document span of three:24 in a 10-3 win over Switzerland earlier within the day. The 2 world powers have performed for the championship in each Olympic event however the 2006 Turin Video games, when Canada defeated Sweden after the Swedes eradicated the People within the semifinals.
This time, the U.S. is trying to defend its title following a 3-2 shootout win on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games, which ended Canada’s Olympic run of 4 championships.
Cayla Barnes had a objective and help, whereas Hayley Scamurra and Abby Roque, with an empty-netter, additionally scored for the People.
Barnes opened the scoring 3:39 into the second interval by pinching in from the fitting level to transform Hannah Brandt’s move by means of the crease for a power-play objective. The tripping known as in opposition to Finland’s Tanja Niskanen was questionable after it appeared the U.S. participant fell on her personal.
Knight, taking part in in her U.S. girls’s group record-tying twenty first Olympic recreation, scored with 1:07 remaining within the second interval. Savannah Harmon’s preliminary shot was blocked and Knight bought to the unfastened puck to the left of the online and snapped it in for her eleventh profession Olympic objective to tie Jenny Potter for third on the USA checklist.
Cavallini was sharp in her third begin of the event, and misplaced her shutout bid on Susanna Tapani’s objective with 26 seconds remaining. Her greatest saves got here within the ultimate minute of the opening interval when she bought her left pad out to cease Michelle Karvinen after which bought her glove as much as bat away Karvinen trying to transform the rebound on a two-on-one rush.
Anni Keisala stopped 38 photographs for Finland.
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Finland will face Switzerland within the bronze-medal recreation on Wednesday in a repeat of the identical matchups from the world championship event in August, when Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 in additional time of the championship recreation. Finland received bronze with a 3-1 win over the Swiss.
Canada is taken into account the favourite in Beijing with a 6-0 document, together with a 4-2 win over the U.S. within the preliminary spherical finale final week.
Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who scored two targets in opposition to the Swiss, mentioned it made no distinction who her group faces within the ultimate.
“We labored for these moments. We’ve been working for 4 years,” Poulin mentioned. “I feel we deserve it.”
Canadian participant Sarah Nurse, nevertheless, was wanting ahead to renewing the rivalry another time.
“Clearly, taking part in the U.S. it’s at all times an thrilling recreation, at all times an thrilling rivalry,” mentioned Nurse, who had 4 assists. “Our greatest focus is we get to play one other recreation on the Olympics. We got here right here to play seven video games. We needed the final one to be the gold-medal recreation.”
The opponent won't matter given how Canada has been the event’s most dominating group by elevating the bar in how the ladies’s recreation is performed with a four-line deep, relentlessly attacking fashion of offense.
Claire Thompson had a objective and two assists as Canada improved to 6-0 and has out-scored its opponents by a mixed margin of 54-8 to set a single Olympic event document for many targets. The earlier mark of 48 targets by Canada on the 2010 Vancouver Video games got here in solely 5 video games.
“I feel we’re taking the sport to new heights proper now,” Nurse mentioned. “We’re taking part in a mode of hockey that’s by no means been seen in our event earlier than. And so, in 5-10 years, different nations are going to be taking part in our fashion of play, and we’re going to maintain pushing the envelope and preserve making our sport higher.”
The 5 targets scored in underneath 3 1/2 minutes broke the earlier document set by the Canadians in 2010, after they scored 5 instances in a 4:03 span in a 13-1 win over Sweden.
The barrage left Switzerland coach Colin Muller awestruck in how shortly issues unraveled.
“We simply had a blackout for 4 minutes,” he mentioned. “You'll be able to’t give them that momentum as a result of they’re similar to sharks after they odor blood. And after they they style it, they’re going.”
The one comfort is how his group didn’t let down because it did throughout a 12-1 loss to Canada within the event opener. Lara Stalder and Alina Muller minimize the result in 5-2 earlier than Poulin and Emily Clark responded by scoring 11 seconds aside to place Canada up 7-2 on the 8:03 mark of the interval.
Not like the high-scoring Canadians, the U.S. has struggled with ending possibilities whereas additionally taking part in with out top-line middle Brianna Decker, who broke her leg in a tournament-opening 5-2 win over Finland.
The struggles continued Monday following a scoreless first interval by which the People had a 12-6 edge in photographs. Keisala bought her proper pad out to make a spread-eagled cease on Amanda Kessel driving in on a breakaway, whereas Kelly Pannek was stopped attempting to jam in a unfastened puck from atop the crease.
The People outshot the Finns 42-26.
The People entered the day fifth amongst 10 groups in scoring effectivity with 24 targets on a tournament-leading 292 photographs. Their energy play ranked fourth in changing 5 of 24 alternatives.
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