Canada's reign as the world's ice queens has come to a disappointing end.

Canada fell 4-3 to the United States on Saturday in the gold-medal showdown at the IIHF world women's hockey championship in Harbin, China, sending the defending champions home with the silver medal.

It was only the fourth time the United States has defeated Canada in international play.

"They're disappointed they weren't able to bring home the gold," said Canadian coach Peter Smith by phone from China.

"I'm proud of the team, I'm proud of the effort that the players put in. They worked so hard over the course of the year, and it felt like they had the weight of the country on their shoulders."

Natalie Darwitz scored a pair of goals to pace the U.S., while Jenny Potter and Angela Ruggiero scored the others. Sarah Vaillancourt, Katie Weatherston and Jennifer Botterill scored for Canada, which had won nine of the previous 10 world championship titles.

The U.S., which won the crown in 2005, also defeated the Canadians 4-2 in the final round-robin game on Thursday to snap the Canadians' 29-game winning streak.

"We're extremely proud of our team and the way they performed throughout the entire tournament," said U.S. coach Jackie Barto.

"We came out and built on the energy we established on Thursday - it was a great win for Team USA."
Canada got on the board first thanks to Vaillancourt, but the U.S. responded with four answered goals of their own.

Darwitz scored her second of the game with 1:30 left in the middle period, which put the Canadians in a deep hole, down by three, heading into the final 20 minutes.

But Smith said the players didn't give up.

"I told them they had to believe in what they were doing, and that we had to outwork them on every single shift," said Smith.

That they did.

The Canadians rallied for two goals midway through the third period, with Weatherston beating American goaltender Jessie Vetter with an even-strength goal, and Botterill scoring a power-play goal 1:10 later.

Canada poured on the pressure the rest of the way, but thanks to five minor penalties to each team in the final frame, they couldn't keep the momentum going.

Vetter stood tall in the game's dying minutes, with Canada unable to pot the equalizer.

"There were an awful lot of penalties. We couldn't seem to keep the pace up," said Smith.

"It was tough to battle for the puck without taking a penalty. It was hard to figure out where the fine line was. That disrupted the flow of the game."

Vetter turned aside 21 shots, while Canada's Kim St-Pierre, who was pulled after two periods, and Charline Labonte stopped 25 of 29 shots.

Finland defeated Switzerland Saturday, 4-1, to win the bronze medal. It was the Finns' eighth bronze at the women's worlds, but first since 2004.

Finnish goaltender Noora Raty was named the tournament's top goaltender and the MVP, while U.S. defenceman Ruggiero was the top blue-liner and Darwitz was the best forward.