U.S. women’s hockey team to play Canada for Four Nations Cup

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The U.S. women’s hockey team will play Canada on Saturday for the 2009 Women’s Four Nations Cup.

The tournament, which began on Wednesday and is taking place in Finland, brought together the top four women’s hockey teams in the world -- the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden -- and is the last international women’s hockey tournament before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February.

In today’s match, the final one in the preliminary round, the U.S. beat Canada 3-2 behind Natalie Darwitz, who had a goal, Hilary Knight, who tallied a goal and an assist, and Meghan Duggan, who scored the game-winning goal late in the second period after an assist from Kelli Stack.

Team USA finished first in the preliminary round standings with a perfect 3-0-0-0 record.

Also Friday, Sweden beat Finland 2-1 with an overtime goal; they will play for third place Saturday.

The Americans are the defending champions after beating Canada in a penalty shootout last year. Saturday’s championship is at 8 a.m. PST. USAhockey.com will have a live webcast of the game.

-- Debbie Goffa