USA vs. Sweden 9-1 (4-0, 5-0, 0-1) Game Sheet

WINTERTHUR – The United States scored four first-period goals en route to an easy 9-1 win over Sweden in the final game of the Preliminary Round of the World Women’s Championship. Leading the way was Jen Schoullis and Meghan Duggan with two goals each. It was a dominating performance that gives the U.S. a bye directly to the semi-finals. Sweden will now play Finland in one crossover quarter-finals while Switzerland and Russia will play in the other. Both games will be in Zurich on Good Friday. The Americans had goals form seven different players and 13 of 17 skaters earned at least one point. It was a surprisingly one-sided game, and goalie Jessie Vetter had very little work to do this night. "We came out firing on all cylinders and took it to them the first two periods," Schoullis said. "We kept our feet moving, and that sent us on our way." After a torrid beginning in which the Swedes skated stride for stride with the U.S., the Americans struck first on the power play. Brianna Decker carried the puck into the Swedish end and found Kelli Stack in the slot. Goalie Sara Grahn stopped the first shot but Stack nailed the rebound with one quick shot to give the Americans the crucial 1-0 lead. Schoullis made it a 2-0 game midway through the period when she walked out from behind the bet untouched and snapped a quick shot between Grahn’s pads. The floodgates opened three minutes later when the Americans converted a pretty 2-on-1 off the rush. Monique Lamoureux-Kolls redirected a perfect pass from Stack to make it 3-0. Jenny Potter put a nail in the first-period coffin for Sweden by roofing a backhand from in close at 19:54 to send the Americans to the dressing room with a virtually insurmountable 4-0 lead. After that it was no contest, only a matter of how many goals the Americans would score. Coach Niclas Hogberg mercifully pulled Grahn soon after the eighth goal and inserted Kim Martin. The Americans got one on Martin before the end of the period to make it 9-0 after 40 minutes. Erika Grahm broke the shutout early in the third period, banging a puck in from the side of the goal while Sweden was on a power play and a delayed penalty. Slovakia vs. Russia 1-4 (0-1, 0-0, 1-3) Game Sheet
WINTERTHUR – Two goals by Tatyana Burina and singles from Yekaterina Smolentseva and Alexandra Vafina propelled Russia to a 3-0 win and a date in the quarter-finals with host Switzerland on Good Friday at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. Jana Kapustova got the lone goal for Slovakia late in the game, the nation's first at WW2011. The Slovaks now have to play Kazakhstan in a best-of-three Relegation Round in Winterthur, also starting on Friday. Slovakia has scored just a single goal in three games so far. "We knew they had a good goalie," Russia's Iya Gavrilova said, "so we just wanted to get as many shots as possible, get some rebounds, some screens. We thought their defence would be slow, so we could rush the net." Burina’s first goal was heart-breaking for the Slovaks. After playing a fairly even first period, they allowed Burina to steal the puck at the Russian blue line. She skated the length of the ice and beat goalie Zuzana Tomcikova with a nice deke with just 6.6 seconds left in the period. Russia dominated the second and only one fine save after another from Tomcikova kept the score close. Slovakia had its best chance to tie late in the second and at the start of the third when it had an extended two-man advantage, but even still it managed not a single excellent scoring chance. Russia broke the game open with two goals early in the third. Vafina closed out the scoring for Russia with a hard wrist shot over the glove of Tomcikova late in the period. Kapustova finished with a late goal on a scramble in front of Russian goalie Anna Prugova. "That second goal was the turning point," Gavrilova suggested, "because with a 1-0 lead the game still could have gone either way. When we got two goals up, we had that safety." As a result, the Russians are still in the hunt for a medal. "This is what we came here for, to play in the quarter-finals," Gavrilova said. "We play Switzerland now, and we have to prepare and hope for the best." ANDREW PODNIEKS