PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The United States will play for a gold medal in women’s hockey for the third straight Olympics.
Four-time defending champion Canada will be waiting for them.
The Americans had a 5-0 victory over Finland in the semifinals, a score that Canada matched against the Russians later Monday to set up the gold medal showdown between the two premier women’s hockey powers.
In the two-man bobsled, the Canadians had to share a gold medal with Germany in a rare dead heat. The two other golds awarded on Day 10 at the Pyeongchang Games went to Norway, which won the men’s large hill team ski jumping and 500-meter speedskating race to lift its tally to 11 golds.
Earlier, Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir broke their own record in the ice dancing short program with 83.67 points. The French pair of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron overcame a wardrobe malfunction to place second. Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are in third, two-hundredths of a point ahead of their compatriots, Maia and Alex Shibutani.
The free dance will be on Tuesday.
In women’s hockey, the United States will be trying to win its first gold medal since 1998. Canada has won the last four gold medals.
“It’s honestly a dream come true,” U.S. forward Hilary Knight said. “This is the world’s biggest stage. This is the game that you want. This is the game we’ve been dreaming of and to have another opportunity to get back here, it’s huge.”
Dani Cameranesi scored two goals and added an assist to push the Americans to their big win over Finland. The 22-year-old Cameranesi is playing in her first Olympics.
Knight is one of six Americans who will get a third opportunity to win the gold. The others are captain Meghan Duggan, Gigi Marvin, Kacey Bellamy and twin sisters Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson.
“We’re super excited to be in this position again,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “We worked four years to put ourselves in position to compete for a gold medal and we’ll enjoy this for a little bit, but we know that this isn’t what we came here for. We’re ready to go to battle in a couple days.”
Jennifer Wakefield scored twice for Canada and Shannon Szabados stopped 14 shots in its lopsided win over the Russians. Canada outshot Russia 47-14.
Finland remains winless in eight games against the United States at the Olympics. The Finns will try to win bronze for the first time since 2010 when they face the Russians, who have never won a medal in women’s hockey.
ICE DANCE
Virtue and Moir had a dazzling performance to music by the Rolling Stones, Eagles and Santana. The veteran pair won Olympic gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games and then silver four years later in Sochi.
The crowd roared as the three-time world champions skated off to await their scores and roared again when the record numbers were read.
The Americans had a strong showing with three pairs in the top seven, including Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who are in seventh place and still in medal contention despite an injury Chock aggravated during warmups.
“This is a testament to how strong ice dancing is,” Hubbell said. “We didn’t expect it to be any different. You have to be at your best to be close with this many great skaters.”
CURLING CONTROVERSY
A doping charge against curling bronze medalist Alexander Krushelnitsky could keep Russia from being reinstated before the end of the Winter Olympics.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed the positive test and said it could have “consequences” in evaluating the behavior of the Russian team.
Russian athletes are participating as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee last year in connection with a massive doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olympics but allowed 168 athletes to compete under neutral uniforms and without the national flag.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement Monday that it has “initiated a procedure involving” Krushelnitsky, who finished third in mixed doubles with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova.
BIG AIR DEBUTS
The high-flying world of big air snowboarding made its Olympics debut to rave reviews.
Competitors took advantage of good weather to put on quite a show . It was a sharp contrast to the games’ previous slopestyle competition, which was held in treacherous conditions .
“Everyone showed their absolute best,” said Anna Gasser of Austria, who won the qualifying round and will jump last of the 12 riders in Friday’s finals. “And that’s what we all needed after slopestyle.”
MORE MEDALS
— Norwegian speedskater Havard Lorentzen won the 500 meters in an Olympic record of 34.41 seconds, edging Cha Min-kyu of South Korea by .01 seconds. The bronze went to Gao Tingyu of China, who finished in 34.65.
— Canada and Germany shared the gold medal in the two-man bobsled, the second time that’s happened in Olympic history. Canada’s sled, driven by Justin Kripps and pushed by Alexander Kopacz, had the last run of the night, finishing in exactly the same time (3 minutes, 16.86 seconds) as Germany’s sled, which was driven by Francesco Friedrich and pushed by Thorsten Margis. Lativa won bronze, finishing only .05 seconds behind the co-winners.
— In men’s team ski jumping, Norway won with a score of 1,098.5 points, beating 2014 champion Germany by 22.8 points.
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More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org
