USA Women's Hockey

ZURICH - The U.S. Women's National Team advanced to the gold-medal game of the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's Championship with a 5-1 win over Russia here tonight at Hallenstadion. Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wis.) andMonique Lamoureux-Kolls (Grand Forks, N.D.) each factored in four goals in leading the U.S. to victory.

Team USA holds a 4-0-0-0 record and will look for a world championship three-peat on Monday (April 25) against Canada at 2 p.m. EDT. The game can be viewed in the U.S. on Universal Sports Television Network and UniversalSports.com.

"After we got off to a bit of a slow and uninspired start, we came back in the second period with a lot of energy and played well for the last 40 minutes of the game," said Katey Stone, head coach for Team USA and also the head women's ice hockey coach at Harvard University. "We now look forward to the opportunity to play for the gold medal on Monday."

Despite the U.S. outshooting Russia nearly seven-fold in the opening period, it was the Russians who struck first off a rebound at 3:21.

Trailing for the first time in the tournament, the Americans continued to pepper Russian netminder Anna Prugova with shots until they were successful at 11:31. Lamoureux-Kolls found the back of the net with a wrister from the slot and Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.) buried a shot during a broken play off the faceoff :34 later for a 2-1 U.S. advantage.

Team USA scored a pair of power-play goals in the second period to go up 4-1. The first came at 4:08 when Jocelyne Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) beat Prugova with a low, hard-angle shot from the left-side goal line. Minutes later and with the U.S. back on the power play, Caitlin Cahow (Vinalhaven, Maine) took a shot and Decker knocked her rebound high over the sprawled goaltender at 6:59.

Decker closed out scoring with her second power-play goal of the game at 12:18 of the final frame off a rebound from Lamoureux-Kolls' slap shot.

Jessie Vetter (Cottage Grove, Wis.) made 13 saves in the winning effort, while Prugova stopped 63 shots for Russia.

NOTES: Jocelyne Lamoureux was named U.S. Player of the Game ... The U.S. outshot Russia, 68-14 ... Team USA was 3-for-5 on the power play, while Russia was 0-for-5 ...The U.S. has captured three gold medals (2005, 2008, 2009) and nine silvers (1990, 1992, 1994,1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007) in the 12 previous IIHF World Women’s Championships. Joining Katey Stone as assistant coaches are Mark Hudak, head women's ice hockey coach at Dartmouth College, and Hilary Witt, assistant women's ice hockey coach at Northeastern University. In addition, Robb Stauber is serving as the goalie coach and Misha Donskov is the skill development coach ... Follow @USAHockeyScores on Twitter for live scoring updates during the tournament. Scores will be designated with #2011WWC ...Get behind-the-scenes news and information by finding USA Hockey on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

GAME SUMMARY

Scoring By Period

USA 2 2 1 -- 5
RUS 1 0 0 -- 1

First Period - Scoring: 1, RUS, Gavrilova (Sosina, Smolentseva), 3:21; 2, USA, Lamoureux-Kolls (Lamoureux), 11:31; 3, USA, Coyne (Decker, Knight), 12:05. Penalties: RUS, Smolentseva (tripping), 4:05.

Second Period - Scoring: 4, USA, Lamoureux (Lamoureux-Kolls, Decker), 4:08 (pp); 5, USA, Decker (Cahow, Lamoureux-Kolls), 6:59 (pp). Penalties: USA, Lamoureux (hooking), :58; RUS, Sergina (tripping), 2:08; RUS, Gavrilova (holding), 6:14; RUS, Kapustina (interference), 9:50; USA, Knight (slashing), 14:09; USA, Pucci (tripping), 16:28.

Third Period - Scoring: 6, USA, Decker (Lamoureux-Kolls), 12:18 (pp). Penalties: USA, Lamoureux-Kolls (holding), 6:57; RUS, Sergina (body checking), 12:01; USA, Stack (body checking), 17:33.

Shots by Period 1 2 3 Total

USA 33 18 17 68
RUS 5 3 6 14
         
Goaltenders (SH/SV) 1 2 3 Total
USA, Vetter, 60:00 5-4 3-3 6-6 14-13
RUS, Prugova, 60:00 33-31 18-16 17-16 68-63

Power Play: USA 3-5; RUS 0-5
Penalties: USA 5-10; RUS 5-10
Officials: Referee-Nicole Hertrich (GER); Linesmen-Therese Bjorkman (SWE), Johanna Tauriainen (FIN)
Attendance: 821