TORINO, Italy -- Angela Ruggiero (Harper Woods, Mich.) recorded a hat trick and notched the game-winner and Sarah Parsons (Dover, Mass.) had her second consecutive two-goal game as the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team defeated Finland 7-3 at the Palasport Olimpico tonight. Team USArebounded from an early deficit to record the win, which sends the USA to the semi-final game against Sweden on Friday (11 a.m. EST).
“We caught a huge goal on Parsons’ second of the night,” said Ben Smith head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Team. “I thought if we held our course and chipped away at the lead, we’d be able to come back. We did that and had a big third period.”
Notes: Team USA will not practice tomorrow ... Canada will play Finland in the semi-final ... Several members of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Team will tape an on-ice segment with Matt Lauer of NBC’s Today Show during an evening session tomorrow ... Multi-platinum country music artist Jo Dee Messina visited the team after practice yesterday.