US women's hockey beats Finland 5-3 at Worlds; Germany tops Japan 4-1

Updated Apr. 7, 2024 12:12 a.m. ET

Associated Press

UTICA, New York (AP) — Kendall Coyne Schofield scored two goals to help the United State beat Finland 5-3 Saturday night at the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship.

Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy and Hilary Knight each added a goal and an assists for the United States.

Heise, on a breakaway, flicked a wrist shot into the net to give the U.S. the lead for good, at 3-2, 7:42 into the second period.

Coyne Schofield doubled the lead about 4 minutes later. Haley Winn stole the puck near center ice and passed it ahead to Coyne Schofield, who slipped a shot between the legs of goaltender Anni Keisala to make it 4-2.

Sofianna Sundelin slipped behind the defense and scored to cut Finland's deficit to 4-3 at the end of the second period but Coyne Schofield backhanded a shot that capped the scoring in the opening moments of the third.

Finland's Elisa Holopainen opened the scoring with a power-play goal about 7 minutes in but Murphy tied it just more than a minute later. Knight gave the United States its first lead at 18:16 of the first perioda but Holopainen answered 59 seconds later to make it 2-2 at the first intermission.

Keisala had 40 saves for Finland, which was outshot 45-12.

The United States (3-0-0-0) wraps up group play against Canada (2-0-0-0), which plays Czechia on Sunday, on Monday.

GERMANY 4, JAPAN 1

Jule Schiefer opened the scoring with about 4 minutes left in the second period and Bernadette Karpf added a goal to make it 2-0 about 3 minutes later to help Germany secure its second win in as many games in group play.

Germany (2-0-0-0), which beat Denmark 5-1 on Thursday, is tied with Sweden atop the Group B standings. Sweden plays Japan Sunday before taking on Germany on Monday.

Schiefer backhanded a loose puck between the legs of goaltender Riko Kawaguchi before Karpf redirected a shot from Carina Strobel into the net for a power-play goal and Germany never trailed. Schiefer scored for the second consecutive game following a 12-game scoring drought and Karpf netted her first goal in 34 games in seven trips to the Women's Worlds.

The teams set a tournament record for fastest three goals (52 seconds) with both teams scoring with a flurry of goals in the game's closing moments. Luisa Welcke scored an empty-netter to make it 3-0 at 18:15 of the third period. Japan's Akane Shiga scored on a slapshot from the slot 23 seconds later but Nicola Eisenschmid capped the scoring with another empty-netter at 19:06.

Sandra Abstreiter had 29 saves for Germany.

Japan (0-0-1-1) must win each of its last two games in group play to have any chance of advancing to the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday.

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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

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