Captain Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel and Tessa Janecke each scored two times, and the United States protected their tournament-record 22nd berth in the ladies’s hockey world champion gold-medal video game with a 9-1 thrashing of the Czech Republic on Saturday.
The triumph establishes another face-off versus cross-border competing Canada in the national championship on Sunday. Canada, which eked out a 3-2 overtime win over Sweden in the quarter-finals and won 5-1 over Switzerland in Saturday’s other semi-final.
Canada (5-0) completed atop the Group A standings following a 4-3 shootout win over the Americans on Monday.
With 9 titles to Canada’s 12, the United States (5-1) have actually never ever missed out on a gold-medal video game in competition history, and they will be looking for to recover the title after losing to Canada in each of the previous 2 finals.
Second-year coach John Wroblewski’s choice to retool an aging lineup up until now has actually settled, with a mix of veterans– Knight and Kessel– and children– Janecke and Caroline Harvey– filling the scoresheet versus the Czechs.
The 33-year-old Knight likewise included a help to increase her Team USA-record world champion overall to 98 points. The 20-year-old Harvey scored and included 4 helps to raise her team-leading competition overall to 13 points. The 22-year-old Janecke now has 3 objectives and 6 points in her competition launching.
Cayla Barnes had 3 helps while Abbey Murphey and Abby Roque likewise scored. Aerin Frankel stopped 14 shots to enhance her competition record to 4-1.
Adela Sapovalivova scored for the Czechs, who are making their Group A launching in the competition after winning their very first competition bronze medal in 2015. This marked the 2nd straight year the Czechs have actually lost to the United States in the semis, following a 10-1 choice in 2015’s competition in Denmark.
Blanka Skodova stopped 15 shots and was pulled after Murphy put the Americans up 4-0 at the 8:13 mark of the 2nd duration. Katerina Zechovska permitted 5 objectives on 26 shots.
With the United States leading 1-0 after the very first duration, Knight scored two times in a period of 1:28 throughout a 2nd duration in which the Americans scored 5 times. Barnes established Knight’s very first objective to transform a 2-on-1 break 4:22 into the duration. Knight then made it 3-0 with a power-play objective in which she tipped in Harvey’s shot from the left point.
Making her 13th world champion look, Knight has 5 objectives in 6 competition video games, marking the 8th time she’s scored a minimum of 5. It likewise marks the 8th time she has actually published a minimum of 9 points.
The United States and Canada have actually bet gold in 20 of the previous 21 competitions, with the exception of 2019, when the Americans beat Finland 3-2 in a shootout after the Finns beat Canada in the semis.
Canada are the two-time safeguarding world champs, ending the Americans’ run of 5 straight titles with a 3-2 OT win over the United States in 2021 in Calgary. Canada beat the United States 2-1 in the final in 2015 in Denmark. The Canadians likewise are the safeguarding Olympic champs after a 3-2 win over the Americans at the 2022 Be