MILAN — The U.S. women’s hockey team continued its run of dominance in the Olympics, defeating Sweden 5-0 Monday to advance to the gold medal game. The Americans will face the winner of Canada vs. Switzerland in Thursday’s championship.
Through six games, Team USA is 6-0 and has outscored opponents 31-1.
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“The energy is great. I think we’re getting better as the tournament goes along,” defenseman Laila Edwards told NBC News after the game. “What I really respect about this group is that there’s no sense of arrogance. We’re just really confident. We’ve dominated, but we’re not complacent.”
The U.S got on the board first with 14:51 left in the first period. Forward Kelly Pannek, moving with the puck behind the goal, found defenseman Cayla Barles alone on the right face-off circle. She took a second to square up and fired in a snapshot past Sweden goalie Ebba Traff Svensson’s right glove for an early 1-0 lead. It was Barnes’ first goal of the tournament.
The U.S. outshot Sweden 13-2 after the first period but didn’t have much to show for it. That changed in the next period.
With 10:51 remaining in the second, Abbey Murphy had a great pass up the boards to Hannah Bilka, who drove toward the goal alone. At the last second, she dumped it back to a streaking Taylor Heise for a one-timer into the net for Heise’s second goal of the tournament.
That opened the floodgates, as Kendall Coyne scored on a deflection less than one minute later and Hayley Scamurra tapped in the puck outside the crease just over a minute after that.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” forward and team captain Hilary Knight said. “We’ve obviously put in a lot of work to lead ourselves to this opportunity, but it’s fun when you really know what everyone else is doing out there and you can play at a fast level. That’s what makes the game fast and fun, and when you’re playing with skilled players, it’s even more so.”
And while Team USA has been unstoppable offensively, the same could be said about its defensive efforts. The current 331-minute, 23-second shutout streak is the longest in Olympic women’s hockey history.
The other record worth watching? Knight is tied for the all-time Olympics goal-scoring mark for Team USA. She's not concerned about getting it in the final.
“We’ll see. I just want a gold medal," she told NBC News. "However that looks, I’m all for it.”
The U.S. fell 3-2 in the gold medal game in 2022 to Canada for the silver medal. That heartbreaking result still stings, defenseman Carolina Harvey said, and she's looking for a different result Thursday.
"The highs are great, but we feel the lows, so you remember that feeling," she said. "We definitely want redemption, and that's what we came here for."
