Hannah Brandt scored with 7:35 remaining in the third period, and the United States held off Finland 5-3 on Monday night to secure the top seed for the knockout round of the women's hockey world championship.
Hilary Knight scored twice for the Americans, who won all three of their games in group play and will advance straight to Thursday's semifinals, where they'll face the winner of a quarterfinal between Russia and Germany.
Canada received the other bye into the semis and will take on the winner of a Finland-Sweden quarterfinal.
Finland upset Canada 4-3 on Saturday, and the Finns would have received one of the two byes if they'd been able to earn a point against the U.S.
They rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the game at 3 in the third period, but Brandt put the Americans back ahead, redirecting a nice pass from Gigi Marvin. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson added an empty-net goal for the U.S.
