Ice hockey-Dominant US slam door on Sweden to reach women's final

MILAN, Feb 16 : The United States beat Sweden 5-0 in the women's ice hockey semi-finals on Monday to reach the Winter Olympics gold medal game for a fifth time in a row, keeping on a collision course with arch rivals Canada.

The two-times champions were the favourites heading into Milan and they put on another convincing performance at Santagiulia arena, where Cayla Barnes scored in the first period, while Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, veteran Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra notched second-period goals.

They will play the winner of the semi-final between defending Olympic champions Canada and Switzerland for the gold on Thursday.

Sweden, who won their last medal with the silver in 2006, beat the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals but ran out of firepower against the world champions United States. They will play in the bronze medal match on Thursday.

The United States have only conceded one goal in a confident march through the women's tournament in Milan and they were dominant from the start as defender Barnes ripped a wrist shot past three Swedish defenders to open the scoring.

They kept their foot on the gas after the intermission, as Hannah Bilka streaked down the right side and fed the puck to forward Heise, who sent it off the glove of the Swedish goalie and into the net midway through the second period.

Forward Murphy flung herself into the boards in celebration after she whacked one over the goalie's head and off the crossbar to make it 3-0 and her teammates added two more scores in rapid succession, even as Sweden outshot them 13-11 during the second period.

"When we look back at this tournament, what we have done so far is amazing," said goalie Aerin Frankel, who turned away 23 shots. "But obviously the