Women's hockey: USA 4, Finland 0 (Bronze)

By Ryan T. Blystone
World of Wonder Staff Writer-Editor

TORINO, Italy -- Forward Katie King doubled her goal total in these Winter Olympics with a natural hat trick and the United States' women's hockey team claimed the bronze medal in a 4-0 victory over Finland Monday night at the Palasport Olimpico.[ep
Hoping to rebound from a stunning 3-2 shootout loss to Sweden in Friday's semifinal game, King and her teammates didn't let a chance at a medal completely slip away. The bronze followed a gold-medal victory in 1998 and silver in 2002.[ep
Canada played Sweden later Monday in the gold medal game.[ep
Kelly Stephens actually got the Americans on the scoreboard 2 minutes, 32 seconds in by redirecting a shot inside the blueline by Julie Chu for the game's only power-play goal. Natalie Darwitz also got an assist on the play.[ep
King then took over with two first-period goals, the first coming 8:09 into the game as she broke in from the right side and waited long enough to slip the puck past Finland goaltender Noora Raty. Helen Resor had sent the puck ahead to King and was credited with the assist.[ep
It took King just under three minutes to score again at 11:05 on a breakaway set up by Jenny Potter, who sent the puck ahead before ending her shift.[ep
King completed the hat trick only 1:44 into the second period as Chu sent a perfect cross pass that King one-timed past Raty. Katie's sister, Kristin King, also assisted on the goal.[ep
The Americans' 4-0 commanding lead prompted Finland to switch goaltenders, sending Raty to the bench in favor of Maija Hassinen who stopped all nine shots by the Americans in a relief role. Raty finished with seven saves on 11 shots faced.[ep
The Americans outshot Finland 20-14 in the game. U.S. netminder Chanda Gunn earned the shutout victory, playing all 60 minutes.[ep
The victory margin was a marked improvement for the U.S., which had beaten Finland 7-3 in an earlier preliminary game at these Olympics. In that game, however, the Americans rallied from a 3-1 deficit with the biggest barrage a five-goal third period.[ep
Nevertheless, the United States certainly expected to be playing for a gold medal and against Canada, the former's chief rival in women's hockey. The loss to Sweden on Friday was the U.S. national team's first in 26 meetings with Sweden. Beating Finland, however, improved the Americans' record to 28-0-2.[ep
NOTES: Katie King scored four of her six goals in these Winter Olympics against Finland. The bronze medal gives three-time U.S. Olympians Katie King, Tricia Dunn-Luoma, Potter and Angela Ruggiero one of each of the Olympic medals ... The U.S. women's hockey team has a 13-2 record in three Winter Olympics appearances. ... The Americans' all-time record against Canada in many different competitions, including the Olympics, is 28-40-1.[ep
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