Canada, U.S. set for another battle for women’s hockey supremacy

The Canadian women’s hockey team earned a 5-0 semifinal win over the Olympic Athletes from Russia to set up yet another goldmedal showdown with the United States.

Since women’s hockey made its Olympic debut in 1998, Canada and the U.S. have met in every final except 2006, when the Americans were upset by Sweden in the semifinal. The Canadians will look to extend their gold-medal run to five straight.

Jennifer Wakefield led Canada with two goals. Captain MariePhilip Poulin, Emily Clark and Rebecca Johnston also scored while Shannon Szabados stopped 14 shots for the shutout and her second win of the tournament.

The Americans advanced with a 5-0 victory over Finland.

“It’s a dream come true,” U.S. forward Hilary Knight said.

“This is the world’s biggest stage. This is the game you want. This is the game we’ve been dreaming of and to have another opportunity to get back here, it’s huge.”

Dani Cameranesi scored two goals and added an assist to push the Americans to their big win over Finland. The 22-year-old Cameranesi is playing in her first Olympics.

Knight is one of six Americans who will get a third opportunity to win the gold. The others are captain Meghan Duggan, Gigi Marvin, Kacey Bellamy and twin sisters Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson.

“We’re super excited to be in this position again,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “We worked four years to put ourselves in position to compete for a gold medal and we’ll enjoy this for a little bit, but we know that this isn’t what we came here for. We’re ready to go to battle in a couple [of] days.”