U.S., Canada to play for gold at hockey worlds

One of global sports' and women's hockey's fiercest and longest-running rivalries — United States versus Canada — is adding yet another chapter at the world championships.

The bordering nations and women's hockey super powers will meet for gold today for the 22nd time in 23 tournaments since the championships were established in 1990.

The defending champion Americans advanced on Saturday with a 5-0 win over Finland, in an outing Laila Edwards scored a natural hat trick and Aerin Frankel stopped 15 shots to set a single-tournament record with her fourth shutout.

The Canadians followed with 4-0 win over Czechia, more widely known in English as the Czech Republic. Emily Clark and Jocelyne Larocque had a goal and assist each, and Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped nine shots for her second shutout of the tournament.

With the Americans clinching their berth first, forward Taylor Heise had no preference over who they faced.

“It doesn't matter what team, it doesn't matter what time, it doesn't matter where we play. We could be playing outside for all I care,” Heise said. “We're going to come out hard either way.”

And yet, even in a tournament where the Czechs, Finns and Germany displayed signs of beginning to close the competitive gap, the U.S.-Canada matchups tend to generate the most memorable games. And that includes a physical, fast-paced, end-to-end preliminary round matchup on Monday, which the Americans won 1-0 on Kirsten Simms' overtime goal.

Edwards joins Simms in being among the four U.S. players making their tournament debuts.