Canada has won the Olympic gold medal in women's ice hockey with a 4-1 win over Sweden, while the United States picked up the bronze with a convincing 4-0 victory over Finland.

Caroline Ouellette, left, and goalie Kim St. Pierre celebrate with her gold medals on ice with champagne after beating Sweden 4-1

Jayna Hefford scored one goal and set up another as Canada beat Sweden, 4-1, to successfully defend its Olympic women's ice hockey gold medal.

With the victory Monday night, Canada completed the most dominant performance in the sport's brief Olympic history, outscoring the opposition by an amazing margin of 46-2. After the gold medal ceremony, Canadian captain Cassie Campbell had this reaction. "I'm just going to enjoy this right now. This is beautiful and just a great team effort and bring home another gold for our country. And I know there are so many people back home who are so proud of us and I'm so proud of every player on our team," she said.

Katie King in action

Earlier, the United States got a hat trick from Katie King as they cruised to a dominating 4-0 win against overmatched Finland.

The United States set the tempo early, with King scoring two of the three goals to give the Americans a 3-0 lead after the first period. She added her third goal in the second period, to make it 4-0. The U.S. defense took over then, smothering any and all attempts by Finland to get back into the game.

Team USA in match against Finland

But the victory was bittersweet for Team USA, which had been expected to compete against Canada in the gold medal match. That dream was destroyed Friday night when Sweden beat Team USA 3-2 after a penalty shootout. Defenseman Angela Ruggiero says the Americans were down after that loss. "We were at rock-bottom after we lost to Sweden. No one expected (us) to be playing for the bronze, but I would have liked a different color medal. But am I proud of the effort and everything else we put into it? Yeah. And that is just sports, you know," she said.

Sweden's appearance in the final marked the first time in nine world championships and three Olympics that Canada and the United States did not play for the gold medal.