OLYMPICS: Ice Hockey: Thirteen's lucky for US, China crash

Vancouver (AFP) - The United States followed up their 12-1 win over China with a 13-0 demolition of Russia in the Olympic Games women's ice hockey tournament on Tuesday. USA opened the scoring when Monique Lamoureux found herself alone in the slot and with her twin sister Jocelyne causing problems for net-minder Anna Prugova, Monique hit the opener at 2:19. Four more goals followed in the first period with Jenny Potter on her way to her second hat-trick in as many games, with a shorthanded goal and a power-play goal. Caitlin Cahow then added another power-play goal at 12:57. Karen Thatcher rounded out the opening period scoring with her first Olympic goal at 9:54. Russia were short-handed for much of the second period, accumulating six penalties and allowing the US to score four more during that time. Angela Ruggiero, Kelli Stack, Natalie Darwitz and Molly Engstrom all found the net within seconds of a Russian player going to the penalty box. Jocelyne Lamoureux scored at 6:01 before Russia changed net-minders after Darwitz's second short-handed goal at 31:00. Potter greeted replacement Mariya Onolbaeva with her third goal of the day at 31:46. Lisa Chesson scored the USA's 13th goal on another powerplay at 1:05 of the third. Prugova and Onolbaeva faced a total of 34 shots on goal, making only 21 saves while, at the other end, Jessie Vetter stopped all seven shots she faced. US coach Mark Johnson said that despite the scoreline, teams like Russia can only get better by facing his side as well as Canada who started their campaign with an Olympic record 18-0 defeat of Slovakia. "The Russian programme is just now starting to build. I think a lot of things concern me, and I don't think that's at the top of the list," he said. "We respected our opponents, didn't try to do things that would embarrass them or ourselves. You have to respect the game. As a coach you'll be on both sides of the aisle. Their players are doing the same things we are, playing in the Olympics. "My message in between periods was to be respectful. Their players are doing the same thing as our players and living the Olympic dream." Finland came from behind to secure a spot in the semi-finals with a 2-1 victory over China. Wang Linuo put China ahead but Finland struck back in the second period with 14 seconds left on a slashing penalty to Liu Zhixin. Karoliina Rantamaki brought the puck from behind China's net and her shot was deflected off Jin Fengling past her goalkeeper Shi Yao. Finland grabbed the winner when Venla Hovi slipped a backhand shot through Shi's legs. "I think the referee was very unfair to us. I've played for so many years and no one (referee) has ever made my team win or lose," said a tearful Jin. "Some penalties shouldn't have been called. What the ref did had a great effect on us. I don't think we deserved to lose." The game grew increasingly rough with the two teams racking up 30 minutes in penalties between them during the game, with China accounting for 20 of them.

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