Women's World Championship again pits USA, CAN

Here we go again.

For a 15th straight time, the United States and Canada will square off in the gold medal game of the International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship, slated Tuesday at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ont., at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The countries have met in the final of all 14 world championship games, starting with the inaugural contest in Ottawa in 1990.

The teams met one week ago in preliminary-round competition when Canada rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit on goals by Rebecca Johnston and Catherine Ward en route to a 3-2 shootout decision. Canada finished first in Group A with a 3-0 record, scoring triumphs over the U.S., Switzerland and Finland.

The United States rebounded from the loss to Canada with victories over Finland twice and Switzerland. On Monday, the Americans scored a 3-0 victory over the Finns to clinch a spot in the gold-medal game against Canada.

Hilary Knight, Monique Lamoureux and Brianna Decker scored third-period goals and goalie Jessie Vetter stopped all 11 shots in her direction to notch the shutout. The U.S. outshot Finland, 43-11.

"It was an exciting game and their goalie played unbelievably well, but we found a way to get one past her," U.S. coach Katey Stone said. "We got better as the game went on and we're happy to be where we are heading into the next game [against Canada]."

Finnish goalie Noora Raty stopped 34 shots through two periods and 40 for the game.

"We always believed with persistence we could get one by [Raty]," U.S. forward Amanda Kessel told the IIHF website. "We knew we had to stay positive and just keep shooting."

Team USA has won four gold medals and 10 silvers in the 14 previous Women's World Championships, including four of the last six golds. Canada has won 10 gold medals, the last coming last year when Caroline Ouellette scored her second goal of the game 1:50 into overtime to give Canada a 5-4 win over the U.S. in the final.

It was Canada's first world title since 2007 in Winnipeg. The U.S. had beaten their North American neighbor three straight times after that, including an overtime victory in Switzerland in 2011.

The bronze medal game will feature Russia and Finland at Scotiabank Place at 3:30 p.m. ET.