USA Women's Hockey

VANTAA, Finland – The U.S. Women’s National Team defeated Finland, 15-1, tonight in the final round-robin game of the 2012 Four Nations Cup at Tikkurila Valtti Arena.

“I thought it was very encouraging,” said Katey Stone (Arlington, Mass.), head coach of Team USA. “A lot of really good things happened today and a lot of people participated in getting on the scoresheet. We did a lot of things better today than we did the first two days (that) we played. Our game’s building in the right direction and that’s promising.”

Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho) scored a natural hat trick in the first period and added a fourth goal in the second period. Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wis.) also had four goals in the game. Amanda Kessel (Madison, Wis.) was the third U.S. player to reach four points (1-3=4) when she contributed a goal early in the third period.

Lyndsey Fry (Chandler, Ariz.) scored her first international goal, a tally that would eventually hold up as the game-winner, at 7:12 of the first period and tacked on two assists for three points in the contest. In total, 16 different players recorded at least one point and 11 players had multiple-point efforts in the offensive flurry. 

The U.S. will play Canada in the championship game tomorrow (Saturday) at 5 p.m. (10 a.m. EST).  The two teams met earlier in round-robin play, a game in which Team USA dropped a 3-1 decision to the Canadians.

NOTES: Brianna Decker was chosen as Team USA’s Player of the Game … U.S. goaltender Jessie Vetter (Cottage Grove, Wis.) recorded nine saves in the game … Team USA outshot Finland 61-10. 

Game Summary
 
Scoring by Period  1  2  3  F  
USA  7  3  5 15  
FIN  0  1  0  1  

First Period – Scoring: 1, USA, Knight, 5:03; 2, USA, Fry (Erickson), 7:12; 3, USA, Knight (Bellamy), 8:52 (pp); 4, USA, Knight (Fry, Bellamy), 9:04; 5, USA, Decker (Coyne), 9:44 (sh); 6, USA, Decker (Kessel, Schleper), 13:42 (pp); 7, USA, Chu (Savage, Chesson), 17:19 (pp). Penalties: FIN, Linstedt (slashing), 7:34; USA, Chu (tripping), 9:33; FIN, Hiirikoski (body checking), 13:09; USA, M. Lamoureux (cross-checking), 14:18; FIN, Saarimäki (holding), 16:27; FIN, Villilä (hooking), 19:07.   
 
Second Period – Scoring: 8, USA, Decker (Kessel, Bozek), 2:30 (pp); 9, FIN, Tuominen, 4:32 (pp); 10, USA, Knight (Fry, Chesson), 12:02; 11, USA, Decker (Kessel), 14:52.  Penalties: FIN, Villilä (holding), 1:56; USA, Knight (tripping), 3:53; USA, Knight (hooking), 18:25.   
 
Third Period – Scoring: 12, USA, Kessel (Coyne), 3:00; 13, USA, Stack (J. Lamoureux, M. Lamoureux), 4:57; 14, USA, J. Lamoureux (M. Lamoureux, Chesson), 7:32 (pp); 15, USA, Bozek (Erickson), 12:01; 16, USA, Bellamy (Picard), 17:56 (pp). Penalties: FIN, Villilä (holding), 5:41; USA, Bellamy (cross-checking), 9:22; FIN, Hallvar (hooking), 14:45, FIN, Villilä (cross-checking), 17:17.  
 
Shots On Goal   1  2  3  Total  
USA  28  16  17  61  
FIN  3  6  1  10  
  
Goaltenders (SV/SH)   1  2  3 Total  
USA, Vetter, 60:00  7-7  5-6  1-1  9-10  
FIN, Portnoj, 9:44  13-18  -  -  13-18  
FIN, Räisänen, 50:16  8-10  13-16  12-17  33-43  

Power play: USA, 6-8; FIN, 1-5
Penalties: USA, 5-10; FIN, 8-16