UTICA, N.Y. — Kendall Coyne Schofield scored two goals Saturday night to help the United States defeat Finland 5-3 in the 2024 IIHF Women's World Championship.
Taylor Heise, Abby Murphy and Hilary Knight each added a goal and an assist for the United States.
Heise escaped and put a wrist shot into the net 7 minutes, 42 seconds into the second period, giving the Americans a permanent lead at 3-2.
About four minutes later, Coyne Schofield cut the lead to two points. Haley Wynn stole the puck near the middle of the ice and handed it to Coyne Schofield, who slid a shot between the legs of goaltender Anni Keisala to make it 4-2.
Sofianna Sandelin snuck behind the defense and scored, cutting Finland to 4-3 at the end of the second period, but Coyne Schofield's backhand shot opened the scoring shortly after the start of the third period. He kept his score low.
Finland's Elisa Holopainen took the lead with a power-play goal about seven minutes into the game, but Murphy tied it just over a minute later. Knight gave the Americans the lead at 18:16 of the first period, but Holopainen scored 59 seconds later to make it 2-2 at the first intermission.
Keisala made 40 saves for Finland in a 45-12 loss.
The United States (3-0-0-0) concludes group play on Monday against Canada (2-0-0-0), which will play the Czech Republic on Sunday.
Germany 4, Japan 1
Jules Schieffer scored the first goal with about four minutes left in the second period, and Bernadette Karp added another goal about three minutes later to make it 2-0, giving Germany their second win in group play.
Germany (2-0, 0-0), which defeated Denmark 5-1 on Thursday, is tied for first place with Sweden in the Group B standings. Sweden will play Japan on Sunday and Germany on Monday.
Germany never looked back as Schieffer backhanded the puck that spilled between goaltender Riko Kawaguchi's thighs, then Karpf deflected Karina Strobel's shot into the net for a power-play goal. Schieffer scored for the second straight game after a 12-game scoring slump, giving the Karp their first goal in 34 games in seven trips to the Women's World Championship.
Both teams scored goals in quick succession in the final minutes of the game, setting a tournament record for the fastest three goals (52 seconds). At 18:15 of the third period, Luisa Welke scored an empty net to make it 3-0. Japan's Akane Shiga scored 23 seconds later with a slap shot from on target, but Nicola Eisenschmidt rounded out the scoring with another empty-netter at 19:06.
Sandra Abstreiter made 29 saves for Germany.
Japan (0-0, 1 minute, 1 second) must win each of its remaining two games in group play to have a chance to advance to the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday.
