Women’s World Cup 2019 - USA make it Olympic and Worlds double

The Final 

Home nation, Finland broke the North American dominance which has seen Canada and the USA fight out the last four world championships as well as the Pyeongchang Olympics when they beat Canada 4-2 in the semifinal on Saturday.

On Sunday they faced the USA on home ice in Espoo with nine players who play in SDHL on the ice, including seven players in the top two lines.

In a tightly fought game the only goals would be scored in second period with less than three minutes between them as first American NCAA player, Annie Pankowski found the net before Linköping HC’s Susanna Tapani equalized with Luleå’s Petra Nieminen gaining an assist. 

And that would be the only goals all the way through to penalties where Amanda Kessel found the net and Pankowski would score twice. Playing on home ice, Espoo Blues back, Minnamari Touminen would score for the hosts. However, Luleå’s Michelle Karvinen, Ronja Salvolainen and Petra Nieminen and last of all, Tapani would all miss to see the Americans crowned World and Olympic champions. 

The Finns will be able to look back with pride with a historic Silver and the Luleå/ MSSK contingent will be able to look back upon an Olympic Bronze, Champions Cup winners and two Swedish championships in a truly remarkable 14 months for Finnish hockey. 

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