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Ice Hockey finals fever sweeps Sochi

 

Ice Hockey finals fever sweeps Sochi

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AOC
Ice Hockey finals fever sweeps Sochi

ICE HOCKEY: Finals fever is sweeping Sochi, with the women’s semis decided for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

ICE HOCKEY: Ice Hockey finals fever is sweeping Sochi, with the women’s semis decided for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Canada will take on Switzerland, while Sweden will do battle with USA, both on Monday at Shayba Arena.

Gold medal favourite Canada has not lost a match in Olympic women’s Ice Hockey since 1998, while the Swiss team is guaranteed its best finish in Games history. Its previous best result was a fifth place four years ago in Vancouver.

The Canadian team has taken home gold at the previous three Olympic Games, its only failure to win gold came in 1998 in Nagano when they had to settle for silver. 

Canada and Switzerland’s most recent Olympic encounter was their opener to this tournament, which Canada won 5-0. They led 2-0 after the first period and 5-0 after the second.

In the other semi-final, USA is hot favourite to come away with a win having collected three victories against Sweden out of their four meetings in Olympic Ice Hockey.

Sweden's only triumph over the United States at the Olympic Winter Games came in the semi-finals at Torino 2006. The full-time score was 2-2 and Sweden prevailed in a penalty shootout 3-2.

It was the first time the Americans had failed to win at least a silver medal in women’s Ice Hockey.

Speaking after training on Friday, USA Captain Meghan Duggan said they weren’t focused on the opposition.

"Our game plan is to stick to what we do the best no matter the opponent," she said.

"We will focus on their special teams and tendencies, then go from there."

The USA’s loss to Sweden was one of only four defeats suffered at the Olympic Winter Games. The other three all came against Canada.

The two winning teams will then face off in the gold medal match and the two losing teams will play for bronze on Thursday.

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