Canada, U.S. will face off in 22nd gold-medal showdown at Women's Hockey Championship

UTICA, N.Y. - Not knowing her next opponent yet, Taylor Heise took the diplomatic approach in saying she didn’t have a preference who the United States would face in the Women’s World Hockey Championship gold-medal game.

And it’s on the ice where one of global sports’ and women’s hockey’s fiercest and longest-running rivalries — U.S. versus Canada — will be settled yet again on Sunday, when the bordering nations meet for gold for the 22nd time in 23 tournaments since the championships were established in 1990.

The Americans advanced on Saturday with a 5-0 win over Finland, in an outing Laila Edwards scored a natural hat trick and Aerin Frankel stopped 15 shots to set a single-tournament record with her fourth shutout.

“There was some animosity out there, and I take that as a compliment to Czech,” MacLeod said of an outing that featured several big hits and a shoving match that resulted in roughing penalties issued to Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Czechia’s Noemi Neubauerova in the third period.

Hannah Bilka and Savannah Harmon also scored for the Americans, who kept their perfect run intact in having appeared in every world championship final since the tournament was established in 1990.

The two women’s hockey global powers have met in 21 of 22 world tournament finals, with the only exception 2019, when host Finland beat Canada in the semis before losing to the U.S. in a 2-1 shootout.