Canada goes for gold at women's hockey worlds

Team Canada takes on the United States in the final of the women's world hockey championship on Tuesday. So what else is new?

Canada qualified for the gold-medal game by blanking Finland 5-0 before a crowd of 10,691 at Winnipeg's MTS Centre on Monday.

"It is going to be a one-goal game and we have got to be ready for it," Canadian head coach Melody Davidson said of Tuesday's much-anticipated showdown.

Canada won the first eight finals over Team USA before suffering a 1-0 shootout loss to the Americans in last year's final at Linkoping, Sweden.

"I always remember lining up at the blue-line and being able to watch our flag go up and actually sing because I had heard 'O Canada' a few too many times,"American captain Krissy Wendell said.

"Not something to dwell on, but remember in the back of your mind," Canadian forward Vicky Sunohara said. "We want to win for ourselves, we want to win for the country.

"The Americans want to win it too, so we need to come out hard and keep the crowd on our side and keep it in the game because that's huge. We need to use that playing in Canada."

Canada took a step in that direction last Saturday, defeating the U.S. 5-4 in a shootout in the second-round.

"We are so evenly matched," said Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser, who leads the team with seven goals and 13 points.

"I think it will be electric in the building with 15,000 people. We want to go into the game with the mindset of playing with abandon all over the ice and really pressure them and force them to make mistakes."

"The last 10 or 12 years, the magnitude of these games has certainly increased the intensity of the rivalry,"American head coach Mark Johnson said. "Because of the Olympic Games, because of the world championships, both on the male and female side, it is just fun."

Two shutouts in two starts

Gina Kingsbury, Wickenheiser, Danielle Goyette, Tessa Bonhomme and Kelly Bechard provided the scoring in support ofgoaltender Kim St-Pierre, who stopped 22 Finnish shots for her second shutout in as many starts.

Sunohara contributed three assists and Sarah Vaillancourt had two assists.

Finnish netminder Noora Raty faced 44 shots in the setback.

Canada improved to 40-0-1 overall versus Finland, the lone blemish being a 6-6 exhibition tieat Oshawa, Ont.,in1999.

Also Monday, Sweden took Switzerland 3-0 and willmeet Finland in Tuesday's bronze-medal game.

Russia blanked Germany 4-0 in the relegation round.