By Trevor Stynes
MILAN, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Canada and the United States will play out another chapter in their long-standing rivalry after setting up the almost inevitable Olympic women's ice hockey final on Monday, but this time the Americans have flipped the script and tilted the ice in their favour.
The U.S. strolled to a 5-0 win over Sweden in their semi-final, while Canada struggled to see off a dogged Switzerland, winning 2-1 despite outshooting their opponents 46-8.
Women's ice hockey entered
the Olympics at the 1998 Games, and for the eighth consecutive time either Canada or the U.S. will take the gold medal on Thursday at Santagiulia arena.
"You want to beat the best teams, and I think for women's hockey, that's the best match-up you can ask for," Canada goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens said.
"It's going to be intense, it's going to be competitive."
Defending champions Canada, who have five golds, arrived at the Games playing second fiddle to the U.S. after the Americans had won their six most recent meetings, and they continued taming the Canadians in Milan.
The U.S. handed Canada their first-ever shutout loss when they met in the group stage, a 5-0 defeat, which will have stung more than the whitewash they suffered at the hands of the Americans in the four-game Rivalry Series in November and December.
On that occasion the U.S. also ran out easy winners, outscoring the Canadians 27-4 across the series which included a 10-4 win, after they had also beaten Canada twice when winning last year's World Championship.
Still, Canada stuck with a tried-and-tested roster, keeping faith with veterans and all their players come from the PWHL while the U.S. went for a blend of youth and experience, with seven of their squad still playing college hockey.
TOTAL DOMINATION
The U.S. have been utterly dominant in Milan, the only unbeaten side in the tournament, scoring 31 goals across six games and conceding just once, in their opening match.
They have scored more than one first-period goal in only one game. Ironically, it came against Canada, as other teams managed to hold out until the U.S. seized complete control.
"Believe it or not, we have been challenged," U.S. defender Laila Edwards said.
"We have just overcome it and succeeded. We will take what we can get and hopefully come out on top."
Canada have beaten the U.S. in four of the six finals, and will look to use their most recent humbling as fuel to retain their title.
"I honestly think it makes us more hungry," Canada forward Julia Gosling said after Monday's semi-final.
"It's a gold-medal game, anything can happen."
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes and Giulio Piovaccari in MilanEditing by Toby Davis)
