🥅 The United States skated into the Olympic women’s hockey gold-medal game at the Milan Cortina Winter Games with a 5-0 shutout of Sweden in Monday’s semifinal. Goaltender Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots for her third shutout of the tournament 13. The Americans turned a tight game into a rout late in the second period, scoring three times on consecutive shots in a 2:47 burst — the latest sign of a team that has looked statistically untouchable so far 1.
The win sets up another U.S.-Canada final — the rivals’ seventh gold-medal meeting since women’s hockey debuted at the Olympics in 1998 13. Canada booked its place by edging Switzerland 2-1 behind two goals from Marie-Philip Poulin, setting up Thursday’s final in Milan 3.
Sources
- US advances to Olympic women’s hockey final as Aerin Frankel makes 21 saves in 5-0 win over Sweden [chicagotribune.com] (2026-02-16)
- 2026 Winter Olympics: Team USA women's hockey schedule, results after semifinal blowout of Sweden [cbssports.com] (2026-02-16)
- Winter Olympics: Unbeaten USA roll into women’s ice hockey final v Canada [theguardian.com] (2026-02-16)
- The U.S. women's hockey team is dominating the Olympics. Now they will play for gold - NPR [google.com] (2026-02-16)
Highlights
- Defensive streak: The U.S. pushed its shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, dating to a Czechia breakaway goal in the opener 1.
- Scoring balance: The goals came from Cayla Barnes, Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra — offense spread across the lineup 1.
- Tournament pace: Through six games, the Americans are 6-0 and have outscored opponents 31-1 1.
- Game-state dominance: The U.S. hasn’t trailed at any point in the tournament and has only been tied 0-0, putting the team on track to match Canada’s 2006 and 2010 runs as the only women’s teams to go unbeaten without ever trailing over an entire Olympics 1.
Perspectives
Hayley Scamurra (Team USA): Scamurra said the Americans have been steady all tournament and that their “peak” is still ahead — with the aim of hitting it in the gold-medal game 1.
Ulf Lundberg (Sweden coach): Lundberg said before the game that the U.S. players are “just human beings,” framing the semifinal as Sweden’s chance to test them 3.
The Guardian (match context): The Guardian pointed back to Sweden’s 2006 semifinal upset of the U.S. in Torino as a sharp contrast to this year’s one-sided result 3.
Historical Background
Sweden authored one of the sport’s signature Olympic upsets in the 2006 Turin semifinals, eliminating the U.S. in a shootout. The win snapped a 25-game losing streak to the Americans, a stretch in which Sweden had been outscored 187-29 3.