Minutes later, Carpenter popped one off in the slot to bring the U.S. lead to 3-0, assisted by Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, Ill.).
Team USA took a 4-0 lead just 1:05 into the middle frame. Hayley Scamurra (Getzville, N.Y.) dropped the puck for Taylor Heise (Lake City, Minn.) in the corner where she threaded a pass to Kirsten Simms (Plymouth, Mich.) as she came through the high slot. Simms weaved through the Japanese defenders before slipping the puck past Kawaguchi.
Murphy added a goal less than two minutes later after she picked the corner on a feed from Megan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich.).
Joy Dunne (O’Fallon, Mo.) buried a rebound from Eden at 8:19 in the second frame for her first tally as a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, to bring the U.S. lead to 6-0.
Murphy, Tessa Janecke (Orangeville, Ill.), and Harvey added to the tally in the bottom half of the second period to give Team USA a 9-0 advantage heading into the final third.
Carpenter netted her second goal of the game 5:45 into the third period on a rush with Knight and Coyne Schofield for a 10-0 quarterfinal victory over Japan.
Aerin Frankel (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) made 14 saves in the shutout effort in net. Frankel now has three shutouts in the tournament.
NOTES: Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) was named the U.S. Player of the Game… The U.S. outshot Japan 48-14… The U.S. was 0-0 on the power play while Japan was 0-1.
