Women's hockey team secures bronze

TURIN, Italy -- Katie King wishes she could've thrown her gloves in the air like a graduation cap and jumped into a pile of her teammates on the ice.\nInstead, she and the rest of the U.S. women's hockey team had to settle for some hugs -- and a bronze medal.\nKing scored two of her three goals in the first period to give the Americans a three-goal lead and they glided to a 4-0 victory over Finland on Monday, playing in a third-place game they would've rather watched on TV from their dressing room.\n"It's hard to be excited because we came for gold," forward Kim Insalaco said. "We were living in disbelief the last two days, and we had to get over it. We wanted to play in the 8:30 game tonight.\n"That's going to be there for a while, and it's going to be hard to get over."\nOne game too late, the United States hustled to loose pucks, finished checks and showcased superior talent in a dominating performance.\nAfter time expired, the Americans gathered around goaltender Chanda Gunn, embraced, slapped backs and raised sticks to the crowd.\n"It was subdued after the game, but we're happy to go home with at least some hardware," said King, who added that she had played in her final game.\nWhat do they have to show from the consolation match? As three-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero said Sunday, America's women's hockey veterans -- herself, King, Tricia Dunn-Luoma and Jenny Potter -- now have a complete set of Olympic medals: gold from Nagano, silver from Salt Lake City and now bronze from the Turin Games.\nExpecting to face Canada in Monday night's gold-medal game, the American women ended up vying for bronze after the biggest shocker in women's hockey history: Sweden's 3-2 shootout win Friday.\n"I am glad we had a couple of days after the semifinals," U.S. coach Ben Smith said. "We had a chance to regroup."\nThough it fell to an anticlimactic game, the Americans played with inspiration, harassing the Finns and celebrating each goal.\nOne game too late.\nFinland found itself smothered offensively, even with an extra skater, harassed by backchecking forwards and stingy defensemen. Despite having a power play early in the second period, the Finns didn't get a shot on Gunn for more than 11 minutes.\nGunn had to make just 14 saves for the shutout.\nIt didn't take long for the Americans to give her a cushion.\nTwo-plus minutes after the puck dropped, Kelly Stephens deflected Julie Chu's shot past goaltender Noora Raty.\nKing scored twice midway through the first period.\nAfter a crafty off-the-boards pass from Helen Resor, King carried the puck along the right boards, swooped across Raty and flipped the puck above her. King pumped her stick in the air, then had another reason to celebrate a few minutes later. Potter fed King with a pass up the middle of the ice, she outskated defenseman Heidi Pelttari and wristed a shot over Raty's stick.\n"We came out and did not have enough speed," Finn defenseman Emma Laaksonen said. "The USA won it in the first period."\nThe Americans made it 4-0 early in the second period on King's goal off a circle-to-circle pass from Chu.\nFinland then pulled Raty, replacing her with Maija Hassinen, but it was too late to make a difference. The two goalies combined for 16 saves.\nThe game was much different from the matchup in the preliminary round, when the United States rallied from a two-goal, second-period deficit to beat the Finns 7-3.\n"We had to set the tone, if we gave them an inch, they would've taken it," Insalaco said. "We didn't do that the last time we played."\nOne game too late.