MILAN — Throughout the Olympic women’s hockey tournament, the American women looked unbeatable.
On Thursday, the Canadians did their best to prove it was possible to defeat their rivals.
But despite trailing for most of the gold medal game, Team USA overpowered Canada 2-1 in overtime to regain the Olympic title, completing a perfect 7-0 run through the tournament.
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The Canadians, who had suffered their worst loss at the Olympics since 1998 when they faced the U.S. in the preliminary round, came out in the first with their best period of hockey in the entire tournament, outshooting the Americans 8-6. Then, just 54 seconds into the second period, while shorthanded, Canada’s Kristin O’Neill opened the scoring, ending the Americans’ long shutout streak at 352 minutes, 17 seconds.
The Americans did a better job in the second period, putting 14 shots on Ann-Renée Desbiens, who looked much more like herself on Thursday night with 31 saves on 33 shots in an excellent goalie battle with Aerin Frankel.
The third period was incredibly tense, as all Canada-USA rivalry games were before the Americans’ recent stretch of dominance. After Erin Ambrose was boarded by Britta Curl-Salemme, Canada got a power play opportunity but failed to score on a U.S. penalty kill that remained perfect throughout the tournament.
That set up captain Hilary Knight’s final Olympic moment, a deflection on a Laila Edwards point shot to tie the game with 2:04 minutes remaining. With the goal, Knight became the all-time leading scorer by an American at the Olympics.
In overtime, Megan Keller sealed it.
The win punctuated a year-long stretch of dominance by the Americans dating back to the 2025 Women’s World Championships, where the team also went undefeated en route to a gold medal. They beat Canada (again) in four lopsided Rivalry Series games in the fall. In their last 18 games against top competition, Team USA has dismantled opponents 84-15, including 33-2 at the Olympic Games.
“Anything we saw (in the prelims) just reconfirmed a lot that we saw at the Rivalry Series,” said Canadian coach Troy Ryan last week. “They play a solid game, they’re big, they are strong, they’re fast, they’re skilled. We’ve got to try to minimize that damage and capitalize off of some mistakes.”
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Canada failed to check really any of those boxes. The team looked disjointed and slow throughout the tournament, and were called both shaky and beatable by Swiss captain Lara Stalder after a narrow 2-1 win against Switzerland in the semifinal. Canada took a veteran-laden roster that relied heavily on captain Marie-Philip Poulin. Nobody has saved Canada more in big games than Poulin, but against this American team it wasn’t enough. Not that anyone would blame Poulin, playing on one leg, for her efforts.
The American team was just that good. Thanks in large part to a roster shakeup in 2023, after they’d lost three straight major international tournaments against Canada, including the 2022 Olympics.
“It became apparent to me in February of ’23 when we’re getting our clocks cleaned in Quebec that some of our older players weren’t able to carry us (anymore),” said Wroblewski. “There’s no way we’re going to be able to catch Canada (in 2026) if our older players can’t do it (in 2023).”
Wroblewski ushered in a major influx of young talent, adding college stars Laila Edwards, Joy Dunne and Tessa Janecke to a mix that already included Taylor Heise, Hannah Bilka and Abbey Murphy. He gave Frankel the reins in net, and gave star defender Caroline Harvey, who was benched in the 2022 gold medal game, a starting role on the blue line.
No team scored more goals, or allowed fewer against, than the U.S. Their penalty kill was perfect, and their goaltenders nearly were too. Under Wroblewski, the U.S. plays an up-tempo style with a focus on puck possession and the idea that “offense is the best defense.” The American attack comes in waves with impressive depth and decorated veterans up and down the lineup. And perhaps nothing speaks more to the U.S. depth than Kendall Coyne Schofield, who leads the PWHL in scoring, playing on the third line.
“I’m really proud of the way the program has developed,” Wroblewski said last week.
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Give the Canadians credit. They had a game plan — take away the Americans’ time and space, and “get in their face,” said Poulin — and they played it nearly to perfection, frustrating the Americans and getting them off their game for nearly sixty minutes.
But in the end, it wasn’t enough against such a talented American team.
This story will be updated.