MILAN — The United States and Canada will face off for Olympic gold for the seventh time since women’s hockey debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games, a border rivalry that never gets old.
And this time, the Americans are the favorites at the Milan Cortina Games.
America confirmed its place in the semi-final match on Monday by defeating Sweden 5-0. And defending champion Canada set the Olympic career goal record with two goals from Marie-Philippe Poulin in a 2–1 win over Switzerland.
The results set up the latest clash between the sport’s global powerhouses in Thursday’s gold medal final.
And it could be the last meeting between the two teams’ longtime stars: Poulin, nicknamed Captain Clutch, and U.S. captain Hillary Knight, who has already announced this will be her fifth and final Olympics.
For the Americans, no matter who they faced in the tournament, they won 6–0 and outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 31–1.
Defender Lee Stecklein said, “We’ve played him a few times, so obviously it won’t be a surprise, but I know he’s had a game before.” “Whatever we face, we have to be ready for that challenge.”
Goalkeeper Erin Frankel stopped 21 shots for her third shutout of the tournament, and the Americans broke the game open with Abby Murphy, Kendall Coyne Scofield and Hayley Scamura scoring on consecutive shots over a span of 2:47 at the end of the second period. Kayla Barnes led the scoring and Taylor Heise also scored.
The U.S. still went 0-0 or tied and were on course to become just the third women’s team to do so in the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010. The Americans also extended their shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, coming back to beat Czechia’s Barbora Jurikova on a breakaway in the second period for a tournament-opening 5-1 victory.
“I think we looked incredible,” Scamurra said. “We have performed really well consistently throughout the tournament. I don’t think we are at the peak, but I think our peak is definitely getting the gold medal.”
The Canadians struggled during a tournament that saw Poulin miss two games due to a right knee injury – including a loss to the United States – before securing a 5–1 win over Germany in the quarter-finals.
Poulin opened the scoring 1:49 into the second period by releasing a shot from the middle of the circle that bounced off the stick of goalie Andrea Brindley. About six and a half minutes later, after Brendley blocked Daryl Watts’ shot, he converted the rebound to make the score 2–0.
Poulin now has 20 career goals in five Olympic games, breaking former teammate and Hockey Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser’s record of 18 goals.
Anne-Reneé Desbiens stopped seven shots.
Rachel Enzler scored for Switzerland 4:53 into the third period. Brendley finished with 44 saves after making 40 saves in a 1–0 quarterfinal win over Finland.
Now it’s on to the gold medal game in the tournament, with the U.S. having already defeated Canada 5-0 in preliminary round play last week. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, while Canada won the other five tournaments.
The rivalry between the sport’s two global powerhouses has seen the United States take the lead recently, winning seven in a row, including defeating Canada twice at the World Championships in April.
“Nothing matters,” Heise said of a potential rematch against Canada. “This is the gold medal game. Obviously, I’m going to say we performed very well and we had great success. You want to take that confidence and motivation, but you want to keep moving forward. We’ll find ourselves and we’ll do what we need to do on Thursday and hopefully we come out on top.”
Sweden and Switzerland will play for bronze in a rematch of their meeting at the 2014 Sochi Games. Switzerland won 4–3, winning their first and only women’s hockey medal.
The Swedes are trying to win their third Olympic medal, and first since winning silver after defeating the United States in the semi-finals at the 2006 Turin Games.
Sweden’s forward Nicole Hall said, “Our work is not done yet. We are going for the bronze medal now.”
Ebba Svensson Traf stopped 19 of 23 shots after Coyne Scofield pointed in Laila Edwards’ shot from the blue line with 3:50 left in the second period. Emma Soderberg took over, allowing one goal on 11 shots.
Although the Swedes tied the game for 35 minutes, they were eventually defeated by the Americans.
“Maybe today we needed a plexiglass in front of the net to stay in the game,” coach Ulf Lundberg said, adding that his team kept the United States at bay for most of the second period except for a late collapse. “I’m proud of the work ethic and I’m proud of the way we were able to perform in the third period. So there’s a lot of habits we’ll take with us into the bronze medal game.”
