But as they methodically talked of the victory that was highlighted by three goals by Katie King in her final game for the U.S. team, there was little doubt that the lost chance to compete for the gold medal still hurt. Goalie Chanda Gunn recorded the shutout.

"We have some great young players who are going to battle hard for this team," King said. "They need to keep the flame burning and starting off with a bronze medal, I think they'll be looking for a silver or gold in the future."

Maybe the most emotion shown by a member of the team was from coach Ben Smith when he was asked about King's performance in her final game.

"We had a little chat today and I knew Katie is a little emotional as is her coach," Smith said after pausing to collect himself. "I knew her pretty well and I knew today would an emotional game for her. We talked about channeling the emotion and what she did on the ice was a great way to go out. The thing about emotion is that it can be an allie or an enemy. She did a great job of keeping it as her friend."

King scored the last two goals of the first period and the first and only goal of the second period and gave her teammates credit for her success.

"I'm just glad we came out with a win," King said. "The 19 other players set me up for those opportunities."

The outcome provided some soul searching as well as self gratification for a team that had it's sights set on playing for the gold medal. But a loss to Sweden in an overtime shootout ending three days before had left the moral of the team on the floor.

"I would have liked to win a gold medal, but I'm proud of the effort we put into it," said defenseman Angela Ruggiero, a veteran of the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Games before Torino. "I know that a ton of little girls were watching tonight. They saw our come-from-behind win against Finland,, they were behind us the whole way against Sweden and hopefully they were behind us today. We're not bringing home a gold medal, but we're brining home a medal and hopefully that will help our sport grow."

But Ruggiero knew the future wouldn't be the same for a team that had become special to her.

"It really was a hard night for us after we lost to Sweden," Ruggiero said. "To be able to regroup like that shoes the kind of team we have. We're excited to win a medal, but in the back of our minds, we probably wish we were playing in tonight's gold medal game. We couldn't look at it as a consolation game. We had to look at it as the final game of the season. This was our last game as a team. Some players already have said they won't be back. This a special team regardless of the outcome. It's sad that we won't be playing together as a unit again."

The future of being with Team USA for some players weren't the only question mark. Smith didn't seem ready to make plans for Vancouver in four years.

"I think we've got a good team and we've proved that here this week," Smith said. "I don't know what my role will be with USA Hockey in the future. I've said before that I think we need me woman in our leadership positions. I think that day is coming and I hope it comes soon. But I hope I also can have some type of continuation in assisting in some role."

Notes:

The U.S. men's team was unable to attend the women's game because of a scheduling conflict. However, Smith said several members of the men's team were there to give the team a sendoff when loading a bus that carried the team to the bronze medal game. The U.S. men's team plays Russia Tuesday in the final preliminary-round game before entering the quarterfinals.