By Amy Tennery
Nov 11 (Reuters) – Olympic champions United States are ready to embrace the unknown as they continue their collision course with a retooled Canadian team at the Women’s World Championship, finishing on top of Group A on Wednesday.
The US stayed unbeaten through four group stage matches with an 8-1 defeat of Czech Republic on Wednesday, with Hilary Knight getting a hat trick and Abbey Murphy sending two into the net. Grace Zumwinkle, Laila Edwards and Alex Carpenter each added another score.
The Americans denied Canada gold in Milano Cortina but can expect a far different team in Denmark, where they are all but assured to meet in Monday’s championship match. The Canadians unveiled a significantly revamped roster after their defeat at the Winter Olympics.
“It’s welcome to have to have new competition and to have that unknown and to see different players start to come along. I think it’s awesome for the sport,” US head coach John Wroblewski told Reuters. “We went through the same thing three years ago and I don’t think our work is even close to done.”
While the much-lauded US youth movement is making an impact in their championship title defence, the American veterans have also shown plenty of firepower, with five-time Olympian Knight the leading goalscorer of the tournament so far, with six.
“We are in a really advantageous spot within the programme where we have the older players who not only still have game, but they really uphold the integrity of the programme,” said Wroblewski. “We’re very optimistic for our place right now.”
The United States are due to meet Denmark on Friday in their quarter-final match.
Canada sat atop Group B following their 2-0 win over Finland and will meet Czech Republic in their respective quarter-final.
Germany, who stunned the Olympic bronze medallists Switzerland 3-1 in the preliminary stage, also advanced and will challenge Finland for a spot in the final four.
Switzerland play Sweden next, nine months after denying them a spot on the podium in Milano Cortina. The tournament resumes on Friday.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Tom Hogue)
