Edwards leads Charge in USA semifinal win over Finland

Yesterday, the United States continued its perfect streak of winning gold medals with a 5-0 victory over Finland in the semifinals thanks to a hat trick from Laila Edwards.

Neither team took many shots in the first few minutes, but then the Americans started to pick up the pace and produced goals for the imposing Finnish goalie Sanni Ahola.

Finally, Hanna Birka opened the scoring at 12:01, driving one home amid chaos in front of the net. Abby Murphy and Tessa Jannecke assisted on the goal.

The Americans continued to take shots for the remainder of the period, but were unable to get a shot past Ahola and returned to the locker room. Finland fell behind 22-4, but looked better than expected based on their shooting numbers and did a decent job of keeping the Americans to the perimeter. However, if they maintained their zone and increased their shooting pressure, it felt like it was only a matter of time before the Americans would break through again.

The second period was much more eventful than the first. The game started with Noura Turus putting the puck on the glass at 1:46, giving the U.S. an early power play. They had a few shots on goal, but nothing looked particularly dangerous thanks to Finland’s strong attack.

At 12:25, things got a little scary for Team USA. Kendall Coyne Schofield was going for the puck with Siri Illijola, and Illijola got her a takedown. She hit the end board hard and fell briefly. Trainers came and took care of her on the ice, but she managed to get to her feet and skate back to the bench. But while the play was still being considered for potential serious penalties, Coyne Schofield and Trainor left the bench and headed for the tunnel.

In the end, the referees decided there was nothing seriously wrong with the play, but awarded Illiyola two points for holding. It was the right decision, as Illijola made contact and brought Coyne Schofield down, but it wasn’t at the level of the majors. The disappointing result was due to the high speed and large size difference between the two athletes.

Just 49 seconds into the power play, Laila Edwards took a nice pass from Tessa Jannecke and fired a beautiful shot that crashed down the bar to extend the U.S. lead. To make things even better for the Americans, Coyne Schofield returned to the American bench a few minutes later during the next television timeout.

Murphy’s hook with just under four minutes left gave the Americans their first penalty kill of the day. And they got a power play of their own just 18 seconds after time was up when Susannah Tapani dumped Murphy during a puck hunt. However, they were unable to get anything done in this game, defeating Finland by a huge margin of 42-8, and returning to the locker room with a 2-0 lead.

In the third period, it looked like the sustained pressure was finally getting to Finland. Just 2:34 into the game, Edwards buried a rebound following a great play by Taylor Heise, giving the Americans a three-point lead. Kirsten Sims also had an assist on the goal.

Less than four minutes later, Edwards stormed past Ahola to complete his first career senior varsity hat-trick. Heise and Sims again assisted on the goal, and her hat rained down on the ice as she celebrated her great moment with her teammates.

After that, the Americans mostly kept the pressure on, but Finland also started to have some good chances. However, Aelin Frankel was up to the task and drove them all back.

Finally, just over 16 minutes into the game, Savannah Harmon scored her first goal of the tournament with a goal that brought the bar down. Britta Carle and Joy Dunn had assists. For some reason, this clip doesn’t seem to exist on X/Twitter, but check out this highlight from around his 3 minute mark on his package.

In the final minutes, it looked like Yannecke had a golden opportunity to extend his lead to 6-0. But Ahora jumped out of the net and shattered his net.

Megan Keller was called for interference with 1:50 left, and the USA ended the game on the penalty kill. Fortunately, they killed it off with relative ease, preserving Frankel’s fourth shutout. With this, Frankel became the sole leader in history for most shutouts in a single tournament.

Overall, Finland played better than the score indicated considering they lost 55-15 while losing 5-0. Their defense was once again strong and Ahola played perhaps their best game of the tournament. But the American offense was too powerful for most to hold back for long, and the defense and goaltending were also great when needed.

The U.S. resumes play today at 5 p.m. ET and will face Canada in the gold medal game (a shocking development, I know). Before taking to the ice, Finland will return to the medal game for the first time since 2021, taking on a Czech team seeking its third consecutive title as bronze medalists at 1pm ET.