HERNING, Denmark — Defending champion the United States marched into the semifinals of the women’s ice hockey world championship in crushing host Denmark 14-0 on Friday.
The U.S. stormed the ice from the start, jumping 5-0 up 7:54 into the game. It was 10-0 before the end of the middle period in the inaugural matchup between the teams.
The U.S. will play Finland in Sunday’s semifinals.
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Taylor Fox set the pace by skating to the slot to score the opener 57 seconds in. Fox had a four-point game with three assists.
Caroline Harvey and Haley Winn finished with a couple of goals and three assists, Kelly Pannek scored twice and registered two assists, Hannah Bilka had a goal and two assists, Casey O’Brien, Grace Zumwinkle, Laila Edwards and Hayley Scamurra scored one with one assist each and Alex Carpenter and Jesse Compher netted one apiece for the high scoring U.S. team.
Gwyneth Philips made eight saves for the shutout.
Denmark pulled goalie Emma-Sofie Nordstrom before the final period after stopping 51 shots. Caroline Bjergstad made 20 saves.
The 85 shots on net by the U.S. set a single-game record, breaking the previous mark of 82 by the U.S. in 1997 in a 10-goal win over Sweden.
In Esbjerg, a single goal by Sara Hjalmarsson against Switzerland was enough to send Sweden to the final four to play Canada.
Earlier in Herning, Canada had to fight hard to advance by edging the Czech Republic 3-2.
Sarah Fillier, Rebecca Leslie and Renata Fast all scored and goaltender Eve Gascon stopped 14 shots.
Kristýna Kaltounková, the No. 1 pick in last year’s PWHL draft, scored twice for the Czechs.
It was the first time the Czechs scored more than one goal against Canada in six encounters in all competitions.
Fillier broke the deadlock at 1:29 in the middle period on a rebound, scoring in a third straight game after missing the first two preliminary phase games due to an upper-body injury.
She leads Canada with 23 goals and 38 points in 38 career games at the worlds.
Leslie added the second on a power play 2:43 later.
Kaltounková halved the lead with a power play goal, and Fast restored a two-goal advantage with 3:13 to go in the middle frame.
Kaltounková again reduced the lead in the final period and was in the penalty box when the Czechs pulled netminder Klára Peslarová with 42 seconds remaining in an effort to tie the game and force overtime.
In Esbjerg, last year’s bronze medalist Finland made the last four by blanking Germany 6-0. Petra Nieminen had a goal and two assists.
Earlier Friday, Austria retained its top division status by beating Japan 2-1 in overtime in a relegation match. Anna Meixner scored twice for Austria, which is playing among the best teams for the first time.
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