Team USA U18 Defeats Team Czech; Moves to Semi-Finals

Haley Skarupa (Rockville, Md.) recorded a hat trick to help the U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team to a 13-1 victory against the Czech Republic in its third preliminary-round game of the 2012 IIHF Women's World U18 Championship. With the victory, Team USA improves to 3-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and will play the winner of the Germany-Czech Republic quarterfinal in the semifinals on Friday (Jan. 6) at 9 a.m. EST.

"I thought it was a very exciting game," said Heather Linstad, head coach of the U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team. "We played very well and competed really hard in an exciting environment against the host team."

Team USA captain Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) put the U.S. on the board 22 seconds into the game by deflecting a shot from Courtney Burke (Albany, N.Y.). At 8:36 of the first period, Molly Illikainen (Grand Rapids, Minn.) found the back of the net for Team USA. Skarupa scored five-hole on Czech Republic netminder Veronika Hladikova at 13:25 to give the U.S. a 3-0 lead entering the first intermission.

Skarupa gave the U.S. a four-goal lead at 1:10 of the second period before Klara Chmelova of the Czech Republic connected for the team's only goal of the game at 2:22. The U.S. responded with a tally from Carpenter, whose shot snuck in under the cross bar at 3:54, and another from Briana Mastel(Wallingford, Conn.) at 9:05. Miye D'Oench (New York, N.Y.) struck for a power-play marker at 15:53 before Kate Schipper (Brookyln Park, Minn.) put the U.S. up 8-1 to close the period with a goal at 16:09.

Burke started another five-goal period with a tally at 4:25 of the final frame. Skarupa completed her third hat trick in as many games and leads the tournament with nine points (9-0). Anne Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.) scored back-to-back goals at 8:21 and 12:03 to put the U.S. up 12-1. Paige Savage(Carrollton, Texas) scored on the rebound after a Sydney Daniels' (Southwich, Mass.) shot with 59 seconds to go to round out the scoring for the U.S.

Sidney Peters (Geneva, Ill.) and Brianna Laing (Marblehead, Mass.) combined to make eight saves in the victory, while Hladikova made 14 saves and Lenka Craigova made 20 saves for the Czech Republic.