Canada and USA will play for gold for the sixth time in the women's Olympic hockey tournament after semifinal wins for both nations on Monday.
Canada Cruises to Win Over Switzerland
Canada will keep its championship game streak alive after beating Switzerland 10-3 in women's hockey action.
Canada has played in the gold medal game in every instance of the women's Olympic hockey tournament dating back to 1998. Canada has won it five times, with the last win coming against the United States in 2014.
The win also marks the fourth time Canada scored double digits during the Olympics, including a 12-1 win over Switzerland to start the tournament.
The gold medal game will take place Feb. 16 at 11:10 PM ET.
Switzerland will look for its second bronze medal, taking the title last in 2014 in the team's third Olympic tournament. It was the only time they played in the bronze medal game.
The first period was all Canada. Claire Thompson scored at 7:16 with a shot that soared over a partially screened Andrea Braendli, only for Jamie Lee Rattray to score a minute later. Blayre Turnbull and Renata Fast scored one each before the period was half over to chase Braendli out of the Swiss net in favor of Saskia Maurer.
Maurer was left alone on Erin Ambrose's goal at 10:40 as Canada moved out to a 5-0 lead, a lead that made the final result a done deal.
That didn't stop the Swiss from putting a couple on the board. Lara Stalder scored her first goal at 18:37 on the power play and repeated that at 29:44, five minutes after she set up Alina Muller for the 5-2 goal.
Unfortunately for Switzerland, two goals from Marie-Philip Poulin and one from Emily Clark made it 8-3 heading into the second intermission, erasing any real damage the Swiss could get on Canadian netminder Anne-Renee Desbiens. Emma Maltais and Brianne Jenner both scored in the third to finish off the scoring for Canada.
USA Tops Finland 4-1
USA will look to win consecutive gold medals after beating Finland 4-1 on Monday.
The Americans have won the event twice in tournament history, taking the debut gold in 1998 and then 20 years later in a shootout win over Canada. They'll meet up with Canada for the sixth time in seven Olympic tournaments.
Finland, the third-ranked seed, will look to build upon its bronze medal win in 2018 as well.
After USA took an 8-0 shot advantage early in the second, they finally found a way to beat Anni Keisala. Cayla Barnes scored on the first power-play of the game after using the open space to receive a Hannah Brandt feed before sending it quickly past Keisala to finally give USA a chance to breathe.
it was a historic game for Hilary Knight, who, just for being in the lineup, tied Jenny Potter and Angela Ruggiero for the most Olympic games played by an American women's hockey player at 21 games. She then recorded her 26th career point to put herself second all-time in American history when she beat Keisala with a wrist shot to make it 2-0 late in the second period.
Susanna Tapani would score Finland's lone goal late in the game to spice things up, but goals from Hayley Scamurra and Abby Roque made Finland's comeback effort redundant.