BRAMPTON, Ontario — Captain Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel and Tessa Janecke every scored twice, and the United States secured its tournament-record twenty second berth within the ladies’s hockey world championship gold-medal sport with a 9-1 rout of the Czech Republic on Saturday.

The victory units up one other potential showdown towards cross-border rival Canada within the championship sport on Sunday. Canada, which eked out a 3-2 time beyond regulation win over Sweden within the quarterfinals, performs Switzerland within the different semifinal later within the day.

Canada (5-0) completed atop the Group A standings following a 4-3 shootout win over the Americans on Monday.

With 9 titles to Canada’s 12, the U.S. (5-1) has by no means missed a gold-medal sport in match historical past, and it will likely be in search of to reclaim the title after dropping to Canada in every of the previous two finals.

Second-year coach John Wroblewski’s resolution to retool an growing older roster to this point has paid off, with a mixture of veterans - Knight and Kessel - and children - Janecke and Caroline Harvey - filling the scoresheet towards the Czechs.

The 33-year-old Knight additionally added an help to extend her Team USA-record world championship whole to 98 factors. The 20-year-old Harvey scored and added 4 assists to boost her team-leading match whole to 13 factors. The 22-year-old Janecke now has three objectives and 6 factors in her match debut.

PHOTOS: Knight scores 2 in US 9-1 rout of Czechs in world semis

Cayla Barnes had three assists whereas Abbey Murphey and Abby Roque additionally scored. Aerin Frankel stopped 14 photographs to enhance her match report to 4-1.

Adela Sapovalivova scored for the Czechs, who're making their Group A debut within the match after successful their first match bronze medal final yr. This marked the second straight yr the Czechs have misplaced to the U.S. within the semis, following a 10-1 resolution in final yr’s match in Denmark.

Blanka Skodova stopped 15 photographs and was pulled after Murphy put the Americans up 4-0 on the 8:13 mark of the second interval. Katerina Zechovska allowed 5 objectives on 26 photographs.

With the U.S. main 1-0 after the primary interval, Knight scored twice in a span of 1:28 throughout a second interval by which the Americans scored 5 instances. Barnes arrange Knight’s first purpose to transform a 2-on-1 break 4:22 into the interval. Knight then made it 3-0 with a power-play purpose by which she tipped in Harvey’s shot from the left level.

Making her thirteenth world championship look, Knight has 5 objectives in six match video games, marking the eighth time she’s scored at the very least 5. It additionally marks the eighth time she has posted at the very least 9 factors.

The U.S. and Canada have performed for gold in 20 of the earlier 21 tournaments, aside from 2019, when the Americans defeated Finland 3-2 in a shootout after the Finns beat Canada within the semis.

Canada is the two-time defending world champions, ending the Americans’ run of 5 straight titles with a 3-2 OT win over the U.S. in 2021 in Calgary. Canada defeated the U.S. 2-1 within the remaining final yr in Denmark. The Canadians are also the defending Olympic champions after a 3-2 win over the Americans on the 2022 Beijing Games.

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