BRAMPTON, Ontario — With a familiar berth in the women’s world hockey championship gold medal game on the line, leave it to the United States’ so-called old guard of Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel to set the tone in a 9-1 rout of Switzerland on Saturday.
And the Americans will be facing two-time defending champion Canada, with the cross-border rivals meeting in the final on Sunday for the 21st time in 22 tournaments.
Despite being the top seed, the Canadians experienced more difficulty advancing in their semifinal, with Sarah Fillier scoring three times — including two goals in a six-minute span in the second period — of a 5-1 win against Switzerland.
Knight and Kessel scored two goals each to lead a young and retooled American team, which has never failed to reach the gold medal game.
“It wasn’t going to be an easy game,” said Kessel, of her and Knight settling their young team by combining to score the Americans’ first three goals. “Nobody’s rolling over. They’re in that game for a reason. So I think having that experience and knowing that it’s going to be a battle no matter who you’re playing.”
Next up is Canada, which is undefeated through six games, but having trouble finishing scoring chances and holding leads.
Swiss goalie Andrea Braendli stopped 49 shots and handled the first 21 she faced before Fillier finally beat her with a shot from the right circle 11:06 into the second period. Jamie Lee Rattray also scored, and Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped eight shots.
Canada was coming off a scare in the quarterfinals in which it pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory after blowing a 2-0 lead. The Canadians also blew a 3-1 lead in the final minute of a 4-3 shootout win over the Americans on Monday.
With nine titles to Canada’s 12, the U.S. (5-1) has never missed a gold medal game in tournament history, and it will be seeking to reclaim the title after losing to Canada in each of the past two finals.
U.S. coach John Wroblewski already was itching for a chance to play Canada before the matchup was set.
“Getting over the hump of beating that team is something,” Wroblewski said.
“It’s not like there’s one thing to shut down against Canada. There’s a multitude of experience and confidence,” he added. “To dethrone someone that’s that good at what they do is going to take an outstanding performance from every single player and very few mistakes as well from the coaching staff.”
What’s been validating so far for the second-year coach is going with a lineup featuring five players making their tournament debuts. The mix of veterans — Knight and Kessel — and youngsters — Tessa Janecke and Caroline Harvey — filled the scoresheet against the Czechs.
The 33-year-old Knight also added an assist to increase her Team USA-record world championship total to 98 points. The 20-year-old Harvey scored and added four assists to raise her team-leading tournament total to 13 points. The 22-year-old Janecke scored twice to give her three goals and six points in her tournament debut.
Cayla Barnes had three assists, while Abbey Murphy and Abby Roque also scored. Aerin Frankel stopped 14 shots to improve her tournament record to 4-1.
Adela Sapovalivova scored for the Czechs, who were making their Group A tournament debut after winning their first bronze medal last year. This marked the second straight year the Czechs have lost to the U.S. in the semis, following a 10-1 decision in Denmark.
The loss didn’t faze Czech coach Carla MacLeod, whose team will face Switzerland in a rematch of last year’s bronze-medal game.
“Are you kidding me? Pumped right now. Guys, this is our first time in the A Pool. First time ever. We just played in the semifinal. We’re playing for a medal tomorrow,” said the former Canadian Olympian in her second year as coach. “I couldn’t be more thrilled of where we’re at.”
With the U.S. leading 1-0 after the first period, Knight scored twice in a span of 1:28 during a second period in which the Americans scored five times. Barnes set up Knight’s first goal to convert a 2-on-1 break 4:22 into the period. Knight then made it 3-0 with a power-play goal in which she tipped in Harvey’s shot from the left point.
For Knight, it didn’t matter who the Americans faced, though she anticipated it would be Canada.
“Obviously, when U.S. and Canada take the ice, it’s one of the best games ever and it’s a hard-fought game. The fans get their money’s worth,” Knight said.
Canada ended the Americans’ run of five straight titles with a 3-2 OT win in 2021 in Calgary. Canada defeated the U.S. 2-1 in the final last year. The Canadians also are the defending Olympic champions after a 3-2 win over the Americans at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Canada improved to 12-0 in world championship play against the Swiss, and outscored them by a combined margin of 86-3.
Switzerland’s chances of upsetting Canada took a hit with 1:37 left in the first period, when the team’s leading scorer Lara Stalder was ejected for an illegal hit. Alina Muller scored for the Swiss with 2:04 left.