BUFFALO, New York — Rebecca Gilmore (Wayland, Mass./Assabet Valley) and Melissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, Conn./Shattuck-St. Mary’s) each had four points to lead the U.S. Women’s National Under-18 Team to a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic in its semifinal match-up of the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championship. Team USA will face rival Canada in the gold-medal game at 7 p.m. ET tomorrow (Jan. 12) at HARBORCENTER.

“We had another strong effort tonight, and I’m very proud of our team as we head into the gold-medal game,” said Joel Johnson, head coach of the 2015 U.S. Women’s National Team. “All along we’ve talked about team chemistry and sticking to our systems, and we’re pleased with the results. Tomorrow will be a great match-up and it’s going to be a fun environment.”

At 16:08 of the first period, Gilmore opened the scoring on the power play, snapping a shot past Czech goaltender Katerina Zechovska to give the U.S. the 1-0 lead. Just 1:55 later, she collected her second goal of the game, sweeping in a cross-slot pass from Samoskevich on an odd-man rush.

In the middle frame, Samoskevich picked up Team USA’s third goal at 6:39, corralling the loose puck and chipping it over the goaltender’s glove hand. Again on the power play and late in the period, the U.S. capitalized when Samoskevich wristed in Jincy Dunne’s (O’Fallon, Mo./St. Louis Lady Blue U19) intentionally wide point-shot to make it 4-0.

The U.S. capped the scoring at 12:17 of the third stanza. Team USA cycled the puck low in the zone and Caitrin Lonergan (Roslindale, Mass./Assabet Valley) skated through the slot, leaving the puck for Samantha Davis (Pembroke, Mass./Tabor Academy) who backhanded it past the opposing goaltender’s blocker, giving them a 5-0 victory over the Czechs and solidifying their spot in tomorrow’s gold-medal game against Canada for the fourth consecutive year.

U.S. goaltenders Kaitlin Burt (Lynn, Mass./Boston College) and Brittany Bugalski (Lake Worth, Fla./Assabet Valley) combined to stop all 11 Czech shots for the shutout.

Notes: Rebecca Gilmore was named U.S. Player of the Game … Gilmore (2-2—4) and Melissa Samoskevich (2-2—4) tallied four points each in tonight’s contest … Team USA outshot Czech Republic 66-11 … Both U.S. goaltenders Kaitlin Burt (40:00, 9 SVS) and Brittany Bugalski (20:00, 2 SVS) saw action in tonight’s game … Samoskevich (6-2—8) and Gilmore (2-6—8) are two and three in tournament scoring. Jincy Dunne (1-5—6) leads all defensemen in scoring.