U.S. women rout Czechs, reach final of hockey worlds

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 to set the tone.

Captain Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel scored two goals each to lead a young and retooled American team to a 9-1 rout of the Czech Republic in the tournament semifinals Saturday.

«It wasn't going to going to be an easy game,» said Kessel, who is making her seventh tournament appearance. «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 another potential showdown against cross-border rival Canada in the championship game Sunday. Canada, which eked out a 3-2 overtime win over Sweden in the quarterfinals, faced Switzerland in the other semifinal later in the day.

Canada (5-0) finished atop the Group A standings following 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.

«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