By Michael Caples –
The boys took down Team Canada on foreign soil earlier this week, and now it’s the girls’ turn to do the same.
Team USA topped the Czech Republic 10-0 today in the semifinals of the U18 Women’s World Championship in Heinola, Finland. The U.S. squad will now take on Canada in the finals once again; the two teams have met in every finals match-up of the tournament since it began in 2008.
Troy native Alexis Shaw, the lone Michigan representative on the U.S. roster, stopped 13 shots to record her second shutout of the tournament.
“I thought the first ten minutes we played a bit nervous and not at our best,” said Jeff Kampersal, head coach of Team USA, in a press release. “Around the 10-minute mark the nerves disappeared and we started to move the puck. I thought the Czech team clogged us up pretty good today and they made us make more bad passes then we’ve done all week, but we picked it up when we needed to.”
14 U.S. players recorded points in the win. Cara Piazza, a Darien, Ill. native, was named player of the game for Team USA after scoring one goal and one assist.
Team USA has not allowed a single goal in the entire tournament, having beat Russia, the Czech Republic and Sweden in the preliminary round by a total of 25-0.