CALGARY, Alberta — Hilary Knight had two goals and an assist to break Cammi Granato’s U.S. points record in women’s world hockey championship play, helping the Americans beat Japan 10-2 on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Knight tied Granato at 78 points with a goal in the first and broke the mark with an assist in the second. Knight added her record-extending 47th career goal in the event in the third. With 80 points, the eight-time world champion is third overall behind former Canadian stars Hayley Wickenheiser (86) and Jayna Hefford (83).
Canada followed its 5-1 victory over the United States on Thursday night in their round-robin showdown with a 7-0 victory over Germany. Earlier, Laura Zimmerman scored at 5:29 of overtime to give Switzerland a 3-2 victory over Russia. In the late game, Finland faced the Czech Republic.
Alex Carpenter and Grace Zumwinkle also each scored twice for the five-time defending champion United States. Megan Keller, Brianna Decker, Caroline Harvey and Dani Cameranesi added goals.
“I give all the credit to the players” coach Joel Johnson said. “They were great. They started out really fast and continued to play with that pace, so it was fun to watch. It was great to get that win and we’re going to get back together tomorrow to start preparing for the semifinals.”
The U.S. outshot Japan 61-12, with Alex Cavallini making eight saves in the first two periods and Nicole Hensley stopping two shots in the third.
Akane Shiga scored twice for Japan.
Ashton Bell opened the scoring for Canada at 1:29 and Natalie Spooner made it 2-0 at 3:54 with the first of her two goals. Brianne Jenner, Melodie Daoust, Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Fillier also scored, and Emerance Maschmeyer made three saves as Canada had a 52-3 shots edge.
Switzerland won after dropping all four games in group play, with Sinja Leeman feeding Zimmerman in overtime for a one-timer past goalie Valeria Merkusheva.
Evelina Raselli pulled Switzerland within a goal midway through the third period, and Phoebe Staenz tied it with 2:16 left in regulation.
Yelizaveta Rodnova and Ilona Markova scored for Russia in the first period to chase goalie Andrea Braendli. Saskia Maurer stopped all 28 shots she faced in relief.
The Swiss were without top scorer Alina Muller. She injured her ankle in the team’s first preliminary-round game, a loss to Russia.
[relatedlinks]
5:21
