European challengers hope to crash the party

Archrivals Canada and the United States face one more hurdle before their anticipated Olympic women's final showdown, with semifinal challengers trying to cut off their path to gold on Monday.

The perennial hockey powerhouses were widely tipped to contend for the championship in Beijing, but Switzerland and Finland hope to spoil the party, with the European teams facing Canada and the US respectively.

For Finland, the pairing offers a chance of sweet revenge after it lost to the Americans 5-0 in the Pyeongchang Olympics semifinal and 2-1 in the 2019 world championship final.

"We have great memories from playing against them and we're going to take the power from there and keep going," said Finland head coach Juuso Toivola." (There is) a sense of revenge."

Three-time bronze-medal winner Finland lost 5-2 to the Americans in its Beijing opener before losing two more games in the preliminary round, but said it had found its footing after cruising past Japan 7-1 in its quarterfinal.

Sochi bronze winner Switzerland outgunned the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC)4-2 in a tense quarterfinal on Saturday to set up a meeting with Canada, having already realized its Beijing 2022 dreams.

"Our main goal was the quarterfinals but we are not done yet. We want to go on from here and get that medal," said Pyeongchang Olympian Dominique Ruegg, who helped her team to a fourth-place finish at the world championships last year. "We just want to keep going."

Switzerland will contend with a Canadian squad bent on reclaiming the gold after the US ended its run of four straight Olympic titles in 2018.

The Canadians have swatted aside every opponent in their path thus far, scoring a jaw-dropping 44 points in five games.

"We have been through a lot. The last Olympics we came up short of our goal of winning the gold medal. Stuff like that really stings," said Blayre Turnbull, who has recorded three goals and two assists for Team Canada.

Reuters