Olympics/Ice Hockey: USA routs Finland to reach final

The USA scored four goals on their opening seven shots of the game as they demolished reigning silver medallist Finland 6-1 on Friday to reach the final of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament.

Forward Patrick Kane scored two goals and Ryan Malone had a goal and an assist in a blistering six-goal first period for the Americans who avenged a quarter-final loss at the 2006 Turin Games to Finland.

"It was a crazy 12 minutes," said Kane. "It was amazing to be part of something like that. It seemed like we were scoring every shift."

The anticipated goaltending duel between Finnish netminder Miikka Kiprusoff and Ryan Miller never materialized as the Americans moved through to the gold medal game on Sunday where they will tackle either Canada or Slovakia. It marks their first appearance in the title showdown since 2002.

"It was one of those games you don't want to give the other team any hope," Miller said. "I think that was one of the best games in the tournament because I got to watch most of it."

The USA dominated in almost every aspect of the game in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,602 at Canada Hockey Place arena.

They came charging out the gate scoring six goals in the first and chasing Kiprusoff out the net after just 10 minutes of play. Kiprusoff gave up four goals on seven shots, including two 32 seconds apart.

The Calgary Flames goalie was replaced by backup Niklas Backstrom who didn't fare much better as he surrendered two goals on his first four shots of the game.

"They came out from the start and that was hard," Kiprusoff said. "On the first goal I was passing the puck and he came up and got it."

Ryan Malone got things started in a first-period blitz for the Americans with the opening goal of the game on a gift from Kiprusoff.

The Finnish goaltender skated out of his crease to clear the puck from his zone and instead passed it right to the stick of Malone who shot into the empty net.

"We jumped on them early," USA forward Ryan Kessler said. "I have never seen a first period like that. It was special to be part of."

Things went from bad to worse for Kiprusoff but he didn't get much help from his defence who allowed Zach Parise to steal the puck to help set up the USA's sixth goal by Paul Stastny.

Erik Johnson and Parise also scored for the Americans who had lost their last two quarter-final games to Finland in the 2008 and 2009 World Championships.

The 2008 game was spirited affair and included a game-ending brawl. But this was a totally different Finnish team that failed to show up Friday.

"We thought we were ready but we had a very bad start," Finnish forward Saku Koivu said.

With the game in hand, US coach Ron Wilson pulled Miller from the net halfway through the third and put in Tim Thomas, giving the backup his first minutes of the tournament.

Wilson wanted to get Thomas some ice time in case he is needed for Sunday's showdown.

Antti Miettinen scored for Finland who were the lone Turin semi-finalists to return to the semis in Vancouver