MILAN — At the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the U.S. women's hockey team hasn't run into a team yet it hasn't been able to overpower.
It was no different in Friday's quarterfinals.
Eventually.
Leading Italy 1-0 after the first period despite taking 10 times as many shots, the U.S. got another point-blank shot a minute into the second period. Then another, seconds later. Both were saved, keeping an Italian team that had spent the previous week allowing more goals than it scored in a game against a U.S. team that had spent its own previous week quickly breaking opponents' wills.
Follow along for live coverage
Then, over the next 3:34, the U.S. illustrated why it will enter the semifinals as the gold-medal favorite. The U.S. scored three times to begin a rout that would end later in a 6-0 U.S. victory.
Kendall Coyne Schofield scored twice. Four other teammates scored as well, including Megan Keller, whose first-period goal opened the scoring after 13 minutes. The U.S. had thoroughly controlled the possession without much breathing room to show for it.
Once Coyne scored less than two minutes into the second period to push the lead to 2-0, however, Italy's underdog scrappiness fell apart within minutes, as Coyne, Laila Edwards, Britta Curl and Hannah Bilka all scored to lead, 6-0.
Once the game was no longer taut, it became testy.
Late in the second period, Bilka fell atop Italy's goalkeeper after scoring, sparking an Italian player to defend their goalie, and in turn Bilka's U.S. teammates to defend her. Pushes, shoves and words flew in front of the Italian goal, while standing behind their benches, the coaches for each team began trading their own words and frustrations.
Yet the game would never again become close, which led to the question hanging over the rest of this tournament. Will any country be able to challenge the U.S.? The gold-medal game looms Feb. 19.
Because Friday's dominance wasn't an outlier, but part of a pattern the U.S. has been building since in the preliminary round, when it went undefeated, including a thumping of Canada, while outscoring its opponents 20-1. Their 4-0 record in group play left the U.S. 25-0-0-3 in the prelims all-time in its Olympic history. Canada, which lost to the U.S. without injured star Marie-Philip Poulin, remains the United States' chief competition for the gold medal; the two nations have combined to win every gold medal since women's hockey started at the Olympics in 1998.
Yet the 5-0 U.S. win was also its seventh straight against Canada.
Teams are re-seeded after the quarterfinals at the Olympics, meaning the U.S. won't know its semifinal opponent until all the quarterfinals finish Saturday.
Part of the U.S. dominance to this point has stemmed from the roster’s familiarity with one another. Four players on the roster played in the 2014 Olympics; six were on the 2018 Olympic team that won gold; and 11 played in 2022.
The longest-tenured is captain Hilary Knight, playing her fifth and final Olympics. By the third period, the only suspense left Friday involved whether she would enter the U.S. record books. Knight needs one more goal to have the most by any U.S. player in their career at the Olympics. Knight is also one point from breaking Jenny Potter's U.S. career record for most points at the Olympics.
Knight did not register a point or goal on Friday, but the U.S. victory guaranteed her two more games in which to try.
