To the surprise of no one, the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden filled out the women’s hockey Olympic semifinals after each team upped its record to 2-0 for the tournament.

The U.S. destroyed China 12-1 last night, and Canada outmatched Russia 7-0 on Wednesday morning. Since Finland and Sweden each won their second games as well, each of the four teams clinched first or second place in their preliminary round-robin pools and advanced to the medal round.

The three Olympic athletes expected to play hockey for Harvard next year—Canadian forward Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03, U.S. defenseman Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 and U.S. forward Julie Chu ’06—each scored goals in their most recent games.

United States 12, China 1

Of the five athletes with Harvard ties playing hockey in Salt Lake City, only A.J. Mleczko ’97-’99 had scored an Olympic goal in Nagano. Now all five have scored in this year’s Olympics.

Ruggiero’s goal, the 11th by the U.S. against China, wasn’t a typical blueliner goal. She earned it by becoming an attacking defenseman and rushing to the top of the crease. Before China could react, she received a pass from behind the net off the stick of longtime Brown standout Katie King and finished.

Ruggiero’s rushing the net was no capricious act—it was a development in her game since joining the U.S. team.

“I’m given the opportunity to be one of the more offensive-minded defensemen on this team,” Ruggiero said earlier this year. “With that I get to rush up with the play and our forwards now cover my position at defense. It’s fun.”

Chu earned her second goal of the Olympics at the game’s halfway mark when she redirected a shot from the point by recent Minnesota graduate Courtney Kennedy.

Mleczko’s only point of the game came just 34 seconds after Chu’s goal when she set up King for a backhand at the top left of the crease. Ruggiero was credited with an assist on the play, even though the puck was clearly redirected by Karen Bye before it was received by Mleczko.

U.S. captain Cammi Granato led all scorers with a hat trick.

The Americans made China goaltender Guo Hong, nicknamed “The Great Wall of China,” look more like a great sieve, though she did stop 59 of 71 shots.

“These goalies are fantastic and they have to be,” Mleczko said prior to yesterday’s game. “We shoot on them so much that they get better and better.”

Though the U.S. dominated the second and third periods, it wasn’t nearly as successful in the first, when it scored three relatively soft goals. U.S. coach Ben Smith ’68 had what he described as an “instructional chat” with his team after the third period.

The most noticeable miscue of the night came in the second period, when U.S. goaltender Sarah Tueting let a soft China shot from just inside the blue line trickle in between her legs and into the net. She only had to face 10 shots all evening.