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Winter Olympics: Team USA women’s hockey rolls over Sweden to reach final

February 16, 2026

MILAN — Team USA, with a 5-0 rout of Sweden, advanced to a Milano Cortina Olympic Games women’s hockey final that they’ve been aiming for even before they left the ice after losing the Olympic final in Beijing four years earlier.

The U.S. scored on three consecutive shots in less than three minutes in the second period to blow the game open and secure a spot in their sixth gold medal final in seven Olympic Games.

The U.S. will face a familiar foe in the final: Canada, a 2-1 winner against Switzerland in Monday’s other semifinal at the Milano Ice Hockey Arena. Of the seven women’s Olympic finals between the U.S. and Canada, Canada has four gold medals.

“Now that we’re here,” said U.S. coach John Wroblewski, “that’s the bullseye.”

“I think we’re looking incredible,” U.S. forward Hayley Scamurra said. “The whole tournament, we’ve really been consistent. I don’t even think we’re at the peak, but I think our peak is getting that gold medal in hand for sure.”

A victory Thursday would raise the obvious question: Is this U.S. team the best the sport has ever seen?

Until this Olympic tournament, the gold standard in women’s hockey had always been two Hayley Wickenheiser-led Team Canada squads, the 2002 and 2010 Olympic champions.

The 2002 team outscored its first-round opponents 25-0 and then crushed Finland in the semis 7-3 before edging the U.S. 3-2 in the final. Team Canada’s 2010 version might have been even better. The Canadians opened the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver with an 18-0 romp over Slovakia and ended it with a 2-0 victory against the U.S. Canada scored 48 goals in its first five games while giving up only two.

This U.S. team has outscored its opponents 31-1 so far. Fifteen players have scored goals, 11 players have multiple goals and 18 players have points.

“Maybe today we needed a plexiglass in front of the net to stay in the game,” Sweden coach Ulf Lundberg said.

But that would only solve half the problem.

The U.S. has never trailed in Milano Cortina or been tied other than 0-0. Team USA hasn’t given up a goal since 8:37 into the second period of its 5-1 tournement opening victory over Czechia. U.S. goaltender Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots Thursday for her third shutout of the tournament.

“I look at shutouts as a team deal and I think that team defense starts with offense,” Wroblewski said. “It’s not just Aerin as the goaltender, it’s Aerin as our sort of representative of our team pulse. It’s never just about the goalie. The goalie is representative of what the team spirit is, and then the goaltender happens to exude that.”

As much as its spirit, Team USA’s success has been its ability to focus on the task at hand, to not get distracted by looking back on their string of blowout wins or looking ahead to Thursday’s final. Eleven players on Team USA’s roster were on the 2022 Olympic team that lost to Canada 3-2 in the final.

“We take it one game at a time,” said U.S. forward Taylor Heise. “You want to win every game, but it’s also the little things that come with it. You want to learn. You want to become a better person. By the time you get to that (gold medal) game on Thursday, you’re going to have so much perspective on what it means to play the game. We’re going to show up and do our best.”

Sweden actually played the Americans relatively even through the opening 20 minutes.

“It was a little bit quiet,” Frankel said.

Cayla Barnes, an Eastvale native, finally opened the scoring for the U.S. in the second period with a blast from the top of the right circle. Heise put Team USA up 2-0 at 9:08, one-timing Hannah Bilka’s backhand pass past Swedish goaltender Svensson Traff.

Then Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra blew the game open with goals on consecutive shots over a 2:47 span.

The U.S. has won seven consecutive games against Canada, including twice in last April’s World Championships and a 5-0 victory earlier in this tournament.

“Nothing matters. It’s the gold medal game,” Heise said. “Obviously, I’m going to say we’ve done great and we’ve had great success. You want to take that confidence and motivation, but you want to move forward. We’re going to look for us and we’re going do what we need to do on Thursday and hopefully come out on top.”

Orange County Register

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Winter Olympics: Team USA women’s hockey rolls over Sweden to reach final

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