SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The work began before the U.S. women's hockey team reached the medal round, before it arrived in Sochi, before the roster was even selected. 
 
 Megan Bozek of the United States, left, congratulates teammate Kacey Bellamy after Bellamy scored a goal against Sweden during the first period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lyndsey Fry, center, of the United States reacts after a goal by teammate Megan Bozek against Sweden during the second period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game at Shayba Arena... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lyndsey Fry of the United States celebrates Megan Bozek's goal as Goalkeeper Valentina Wallner of Sweden sits on her knees during the second period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lyndsey Fry of the United States trips over Goalkeeper Valentina Wallner of Sweden during the first period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game at Shayba Arena, Monday, Feb. 17,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Goalkeeper Valentina Wallner of Sweden leaves the ice at the end of the second period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game against the USA at Shayba Arena, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Team USA celebrates a goal against Sweden during the second period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game at Shayba Arena Monday, Feb. 17, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Matt... (Associated Press) 
 
 USA Goalkeeper Jessie Vetter blocks a shot by Sweden during the third period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game at Shayba Arena, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 Anna Borgqvist of Sweden and Kacey Bellamy of the United States battle against the glass foe control of the puck during the second period of the 2014 Winter Olympics women's semifinal ice hockey game... (Associated Press) 
 
 Four years ago, the Americans left the Olympics with a silver medal. And Julie Chu was determined to be back. 
 
 "When that buzzer goes off and it erupted in the arena and we fell short of our goal of being the best in the world, that hurts," the four-time Olympian said after the United States beat Sweden 6-1 on Monday to reach the gold medal game in Sochi. "The last four years, that's been our goal." 
 
 Megan Bozek and Brianna Decker each had a goal and two assists, and the Americans outshot Sweden 70-9 to clinch no worse than a silver medal. The U.S. has medaled in every Winter Games since women's hockey was added in 1998, and just once — with a loss to Sweden in the 2006 semifinals — failed to reach the Olympic championship game. 
 
 Canada, a three-time defending champion that has played in every Olympic final, will have a chance for a fourth gold in a row after a 3-1 victory over Switzerland later Monday. Not since the inaugural tournament in Nagano have the Americans beaten Canada, losing in the championship game in 2002 and 2010 and again in the preliminary round of the Sochi Games on Wednesday. 
 
 There are 11 players on the U.S. roster who played in the final in Vancouver, but Chu is the only one who was also on the team in Salt Lake City or Turin. She has two silver medals and a bronze. 
 
 "We're going for a different color this time," she said. 
 
 And coach Katey Stone would like to see her get it. 
 
 "It's about time isn't it? It's time," said Stone, who was also Chu's coach at Harvard. "Julie's been everything to the program, she's been a youngster, she's been a veteran ... she's been a mother to the younger kids. Kids like that don't come around all the time. She's a special one. I certainly hope she gets what she wants." 
 
 In goal, Jesse Vetter needed just eight saves for the victory. 
 
 The U.S. scored five times in 47 shots on starting goalie Valentina Wallner before she was replaced in the second period by Kim Martin Hasson. The backup was the winning goaltender when Sweden upset the Americans in Turin, and she stopped 22 of 23 shots. 
 
 "We took Valentina out because she had a busy day at work," said assistant coach Leif Boork, whose team will face Switzerland for third place. "We wanted to make a decision for the next game, the bronze medal game." 
 
 Anna Borgqvist scored on a deflected shot past Vetter with just under seven minutes remaining to spoil the shutout. 
 
 Alex Carpenter and Kacey Bellamy scored in a span of 66 seconds in the first period, and Amanda Kessel gave the Americans a 3-0 lead before Sweden got off its first shot. The U.S. outshot Sweden 29-1 in the first period. 
 
 "That was not the start we wanted to have," Boork said. "We knew before that it is one of the world's best teams and they showed that today. We tried to play for the whole game, even if we were under hard pressure from the beginning. But it's too big of a challenge for us at the moment." 
 
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 The United States' Charlie White and Meryl Davis celebrate their ice dancing gold medal. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports) 
 
 SOCHI, Russia -- When Meryl Davis and Charlie White began skating together, she was so shy she couldn't even look at him, and coaches would have to put a sticker on his forehead so she'd have somewhere to look. He was annoyed as only a 9-year-old boy can be, forced to break someone new into a sport he'd already been doing for six months. 
 
 It's fitting, then, that the ice dancers would give the United States its first Olympic gold medal in a figure skating event other than singles. 
 
 Still together after 17 years, they've outlasted many marriages. They're family now as much as skating partners and friends, and for all their considerable skill, they don't win gold Monday night without the love and respect they have for one another. 
 
 "We've grown up together in every sense of the word," Davis said, "and I'm just so grateful that we were able to do it together." 
 
 Being Olympic champions wasn't the goal when Davis and White teamed up. How could it have been, when the United States was still considered a backwater in ice dance? 
 
 It would take a change in the judging system in the mid-2000s to make North Americans legitimate medal contenders, and it would take a rivalry with another team committed for the long haul, Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, to make Davis and White champions. 
 
 Virtue and Moir won the silver medal, their second of these Olympics. 
 
 RECAP: Entire ice dancing event 
 
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 "We learned a lot about ourselves as people that maybe you don't get chance to learn if you're not in the situations that we've been put into," White said. "The struggles, the rivalry, knowing that if you're not perfect you can forget about your dreams and that constant striving for perfection. 
 
 "You have to look in the mirror and figure out every day what it takes to get there. There's a lot of soul searching when you're at the top of the game, as the four of us have been. You mature a lot quicker under that pressure, and I think we did that." 
 
 Never moreso than over the last four years. 
 
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 The Canadians and Americans finished 1-2 in Vancouver. As gratifying as that silver medal for Davis and White was, it made them hungry for more. 
 
 But to get to the top of the podium, they would have to become a complete team, that near-perfect blend of art and athleticism that makes it seem as if they're truly dancing rather than skating on a sheet of ice. And the only way to achieve that was through long hours, gallons of sweat and a steadfast faith in each other and their coach, Marina Zoueva. 
 
 "It's taken the last four years of day-in and day-out practice and working with Marina and having her show us the way," White said. 
 
 The result was obvious, and not just because of the gold medals they now have. 
 
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 Skating to Scheherazade, Davis and White may as well have been mirror images. Every extension, every turn, every expression of emotion was perfectly matched. Nowhere was it more evident than in their twizzles. 
 
 The rotating turns are incredibly difficult. Try rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. Now try doing it in sync with someone else, and you get the idea. But Davis and White were so in sync they looked as if they were attached by invisible strings pulling them in the same direction. 
 
 They were energetic and powerful from the first note of their music to their last. When they finished, White was so spent he knelt on the ice for several seconds. When he finally rose, he buried his head in Davis' shoulder and managed to sum up their last 17 years with three simple words: 
 
 "I love you." 
 
 "It was the perfect moment," White said, "to express how grateful that I am to have her by my side." 
 
 PHOTOS: ICE DANCE COMPETITION IN SOCHI ||||| SOCHI, Russia -- Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dance gold medal Monday, the first Olympic title in the event for the United States. 
 
 Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, the 2010 champions, took silver. Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov captured bronze. 
 
 
 
 Davis and White won silver in Vancouver, but in the four years since they have overtaken the Canadians, their training partners in Detroit. 
 
 The Americans, the reigning world champs, scored 116.63 points in the free dance to finish with 195.52, 4.53 ahead of Virtue and Moir. 
 
 When the music from "Sheherazade" ended with White on a knee, Davis rested her head on his back in exhausted elation. The two started skating together in 1997 in Michigan, and on the biggest day of their career, they were nearly flawless. 
 
 "That in itself justified 17 years of hard work," White, 26, said. 
 
 
 
 As the music swelled over the final minute of the program, their feet were in nonstop motion yet every movement was intricately choreographed. Their lifts were a blur as White spun across the ice with Davis held aloft, their movements and expressions still fierce despite the draining demands of the performance. 
 
 As they told the story of the Persian king and the woman who enchants him, White was regal in purple velvet, Davis beguiling in a lavender dress with jewels shimmering on her midriff. 
 
 They now have one medal of each color after winning bronze in the new team event in Sochi. 
 
 
 
 Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States react in the results area after competing in the ice dance free dance figure skating finals at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) Vadim Ghirda, AP 
 
 "We have grown up in every sense of the word," Davis, 27, said of the partnership that took them to Olympic gold. 
 
 Fellow American skater Adam Rippon tweeted his congratulations after the performance: 
 
 I was tearing up in the middle of Meryl and Charlie's free dance. So proud and happy for my friends. No one deserves it more. :)!!!!!! — Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) February 17, 2014 
 
 Virtue and Moir became the first North American ice dance gold medalists at their home Olympics in Vancouver. Their free dance to Russian classical music told the story of their own partnership, which also stretches back to 1997. 
 
 In a performance at times tender and others triumphant, Moir kissed her hand at the start and again throughout the program. 
 
 
 
 "Don't think anyone will love us less for bringing home a silver medal to Canada," Virtue said. 
 
 Ilinykh and Katsalapov were just ninth at last year's world championships but are now the latest Olympic ice dance medalists from Russia, finishing 7.51 points behind the Canadians. She's only 19; he's 22. The home fans started cheering when the first few notes of "Swan Lake" played for their free dance, and they were roaring when it ended with Katsalapov collapsed on his knees and Ilinykh weeping. 
 
 France's Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat were fourth, 6.26 points out of bronze. The other U.S. teams, Madison Chock and Evan Bates and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani, were eighth and ninth. 
 
 Russia has won 18 of 33 medals in ice dance's Olympic history, but now North Americans own two straight golds.
– US speedskaters aren't doing so hot, but other Americans strapping on skates at Sochi are making up for it. Today, Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first-ever gold for USA in ice dancing, reports CBS News. They beat the last gold-medal winners, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, by a relatively wide margin of 4.5 points. (The couples train together.) "It still hasn't sunk in yet," says Davis, 27. Adds White, 26, of their mistake-free skate today: "That in itself justified 17 years of hard work." The win is all the more impressive because, in ice dance, Americans "weren't even afterthoughts a decade ago," observes USA Today. In a less delicate ice-skating sport, the US women's hockey team advanced to the gold medal game against Canada with a 6-1 win over Sweden, reports AP. That's the matchup pretty much everyone expected before the Olympics began, and if previous games between these two very unfriendly rivals are a guide, this one should be entertaining even for non-hockey fans. The game is at noon Eastern on Thursday.