Ice hockey-US stay pristine in world championship, welcome revamped Canadian team

By Amy Tennery Nov 11 (Reuters) – Olympic champions United States are ready to embrace the unknown as they continue their collision course with a retooled Canadian team at the Women’s World Championship, ​finishing on top of Group A on Wednesday. The US stayed ‌unbeaten through four group stage matches with an 8-1 defeat of Czech Republic on Wednesday, with Hilary Knight getting a hat trick and Abbey Murphy sending two into the net. Grace Zumwinkle, Laila Edwards and Alex Carpenter each added another score. The Americans denied Canada ‌gold in ​Milano Cortina but can expect a far ⁠different team in Denmark, where ⁠they are all but assured to meet in Monday’s championship match. The Canadians unveiled a significantly revamped roster after their defeat at the Winter Olympics. “It’s welcome to have to have new competition and to ​have that unknown and to see different players start to come along. I think it’s awesome for the sport,” US head coach ⁠John Wroblewski told Reuters. “We went through the ⁠same thing three years ago and I don’t think ​our work is even close to done.” While the much-lauded US youth movement is ​making an impact in their championship title defence, the American ‌veterans have also shown plenty of firepower, with five-time Olympian Knight the leading goalscorer of the tournament so far, with six. “We are in a really advantageous spot within the programme where we have the older players who ⁠not only still have game, but they really uphold the integrity of the programme,” said Wroblewski. “We’re very optimistic for our place right now.” The United States ⁠are due to meet ‌Denmark on Friday in their quarter-final match. Canada sat ⁠atop Group B following their 2-0 win over Finland ​and will ‌meet Czech Republic in their respective quarter-final. Germany, who ​stunned the ⁠Olympic bronze medallists Switzerland 3-1 in the preliminary stage, also advanced and will challenge Finland for a spot in the final four. Switzerland play Sweden next, nine months after denying them a spot on the podium in Milano Cortina. The tournament resumes on Friday. (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing ​by Tom Hogue)