BURLINGTON, Vt. – Canada’s National Women’s Team will face off against the United States for the gold medal at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, following a 5-1 semifinal win over Finland on Friday, April 13 at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

This will mark the 14th straight time that Canada and the U.S. have met in the final game of the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship since the tournament’s inception in 1990. The gold medal game will air live on TSN and RDS, Hockey Canada’s official broadcasters, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 14. Please check your local listings for broadcast times in your area.

In preliminary action, Canada finished second in Pool A with a 2-1 record, suffering a 9-2 loss to the United States on Saturday, April 7, before defeating Finland 3-2 on Sunday, April 8 and Russia 14-1 on Tuesday, April 10. The United States finished first in Pool A, defeating Switzerland 10-0 in Friday’s late semifinal.

In Canada’s semifinal earlier Friday, alternate captain Caroline Ouellette (Montreal, Que./Montreal, CWHL) opened the scoring just 3:32 into the game, with Laura Fortino (Hamilton, Ont./Cornell University, ECAC) adding another less than a minute-and-a-half later to make it 2-0 after the first period. After assisting on Fortino’s goal, Meghan Agosta (Ruthven, Ont./Montreal, CWHL) scored one of her own two minutes into the second. Finland got on the scoreboard on the man advantage midway through the period, but Marie-Philip Poulin (Beauceville, Que./Boston University, HE) replied at 12:12 in the third and Courtney Birchard (Mississauga, Ont./Brampton, CWHL) capped it off on a Canadian power play with 1:20 remaining on the clock.

TEAM CANADA RETURN FLIGHT INFORMATION FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 15:

Flights are listed alphabetically by final destination and with local times.

TEAM CANADA RETURN FLIGHT INFORMATION FOR MONDAY, APRIL 16:

Canada’s National Women’s Team includes 16 returnees from the Canadian contingent that claimed silver at the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship in Winterthur and Zurich, Switzerland, last April and 13 players who won a gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C. The 23-player roster is comprised of three goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards.

Canada’s National Women’s Team was selected by Church (Toronto, Ont./York University, CIS), assistant coaches Doug Derraugh (Arnprior, Ont./Cornell University, ECAC) and Danielle Goyette (St-Nazaire, Que./University of Calgary, CIS), along with Hockey Canada’s head scout of national women’s team programs Melody Davidson.

Canada’s National Women’s Team has appeared in every world championship gold medal game, winning nine gold medals (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 20) and four silver (2005, 2008, 20). The United States have won the gold medal at the last three world championships, in 2008 in Harbin, China, 2009 in Hameenlinna, Finland, and 2011 in Winterthur and Zurich, Switzerland.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Kristen Lipscombe, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of communications, will be on site with Canada’s National Women’s Team in Burlington. Please contact her for interview requests at [email protected] or (403) 826-4819.

To stay up-to-date on Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship this April in Burlington, please follow Team Canada at www.Twitter.com/HC_TeamCanada, become a fan of Hockey Canada at www.Facebook.com/HockeyCanada and visit www.HockeyCanada.ca/NWT.