USA women’s hockey team throttles archrival Canada as captain Hilary Knight ties Olympic record

The United States’ women’s ice hockey team is a freight train, destroying everything in its path.

The Americans earned their fourth win in as many games to open up the Milan Cortina Games with yet another blowout, this one a 5-0 victory over Canada — it was their third-consecutive 5-0 victory.

In the contest, Hilary Knight tied the U.S. record for the most career points in U.S. Olympic women’s hockey history with a first-period assist.

The United States scored two goals in each of the first two periods. Two were scored by Hannah Bilka, and each was assisted by Abbey Murphy.

It is now the Americans’ seventh consecutive victory over Canada, one shy of the rivalry’s all-time record. They have outscored their opponents 25-1 so far, with Czechia scoring the only goal in the very first game.

The contest figures to be a preview of the gold-medal game, as six of the seven gold-medal games in Olympic history have been between Canada and the U.S. Canada has won four of those, including the most recent in 2022.

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Canada and the United States have also met in the gold-medal game at 23 of 24 IIHF Women’s World Championships and 21 of 23 4 Nations Cups since international play started in 1987. Excluding the pandemic, the last time the two countries did not face off in a gold-medal game in any international tournament was 2019, and before that, 1993 (there was no IIHF Women’s World Championship that year). Canada settled for bronze in the 2019 World Championship, while the U.S. defeated Finland. It remains the only year Canada did not finish with gold or silver, while the U.S. streak of playing for gold is still intact.

Canada, though, has earned gold or silver in only seven Olympics, while the Americans had to settle for bronze in 2006.

Next comes the knockout stage on Friday, with semifinals being played Monday, and both the gold- and bronze-medal games on Feb. 19.

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