U.S. and Canada Verify Gold-Medal Showdown in Hockey

After 26 ladies’s hockey contests in Beijing this month, the seemingly inevitable become a lock on Monday: Canada and america will play for the gold medal.

The groups which have dueled for gold at each Video games however one since 1998, when ladies’s hockey grew to become an Olympic sport, set their championship matchup by navigating semifinals that generally felt extra like formalities than two mighty levels.

Canada had the day’s rout, a 10-3 drubbing of Switzerland. The US contended with Finland, which captured the bronze medal on the 2018 Video games, and prevailed by a a lot narrower margin, successful 4-1. However for the entire perpetual speak about specializing in one recreation and one opponent at a time, the Individuals and Canadians wound up the place they needed to — and the place nearly everybody anticipated them to.

“This was a reasonably good matchup going into the gold-medal recreation,” mentioned Sarah Nurse, a ahead who’s on her second Canadian Olympic crew. “We needed to face adversity at the moment, and I feel the Swiss performed us nicely.”

The scoreboard confirmed solely a lot proof of that.

In a rematch of a Feb. 3 recreation that Canada gained by 11 targets, the Canadians took about seven minutes on Monday to search out the online. Then it appeared as if they might by no means cease scoring.

There was a fierce shot from the face-off circle by Claire Thompson. A deflection gave Jamie Lee Rattray an opportunity she seized. Blayre Turnbull scored; so did Renata Quick and Erin Ambrose.

5 Canadian targets in beneath 4 minutes.

The Swiss, having already surrendered the day’s successful objective, didn’t precisely fade away. Lara Stalder put Switzerland on the scoreboard close to the top of the primary interval, and Alina Muller, a sensational ahead who was 15 years previous when she helped Switzerland win the bronze medal on the 2014 Video games, capped a fast-developing play early within the second with a objective of her personal. Stalder scored once more later within the interval.

The Canadians, although, had saved scoring all of the whereas. By the top of the second, it was 8-3.

Emma Maltais and Brianne Jenner added targets for Canada within the third interval. The crew has recorded 54, probably the most of any squad on the Beijing Video games.

“To attain the best way that we’ve been scoring, that wasn’t simply displaying up at this event,” Jenner mentioned. “It’s been constructing and constructing and constructing for years.”

The Finns, who almost beat the Individuals for the 2019 world championship, posed a far stiffer check for america after dusk in Beijing. Though the Individuals, as regular, handily outshot their opponent, they once more struggled to show alternatives into factors.

A dozen U.S. pictures within the first interval yielded no targets — the Individuals constructed a 2-0 lead within the first once they performed Finland on Feb. 3 — and the semifinal remained a scoreless tie due to some quick-reflexed goaltending by Alex Cavallini, who was a member of the U.S. crew that gained gold on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games.

It was not till there have been about 16 minutes left within the second that Cayla Barnes, who received the puck after Hilary Knight handed to Hannah Brandt, turned a fast wrist flick right into a power-play objective.

Knight, who appeared in her twenty first Olympic recreation on Monday, tying the American file in ladies’s hockey, lifted a shot by way of a scrum to offer america a two-goal lead headed into the ultimate interval.

By then, the Individuals had tried nearly thrice as many pictures because the Finns, who had been successful extra of the face-offs.

Within the third interval, Hayley Scamurra despatched an extended attempt by way of the Finnish goalkeeper’s legs to push the American lead greater as soon as extra.

Finland and Switzerland will play for bronze on Wednesday; the Swiss edged the Finns, 3-2, in a contest on Feb. 7.

Canada gained a preliminary spherical recreation in opposition to america, 4-2, the following day. The Individuals and Canadians will play the event’s last showdown on Thursday afternoon in Beijing.

The Canadians are insisting that they aren’t fascinated with the 2018 Video games, when america gained the gold medal in a shootout.

“I feel we all know that historical past, however we’re going to offer ourselves a clean slate,” Jenner mentioned. “We checked out it as a chance to go on the market and declare a gold fairly than wanting on the historical past books and what has occurred.”