Women's Olympic Ice Hockey
2026 Olympic
Hockey
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The United States women's hockey team faces Italy today in the quarterfinals at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Team USA has never failed to medal in women's hockey at the Olympics. Follow along for coverage from our hockey experts at The Athletic.
After Italy's last game, head coach Eric Bouchard was asked whether he would prefer to play the U.S. or Canada in the quarterfinals. He gave quite the response.
"Take your pick. No preference. We are happy to be there. It will be one of the top two teams in the world. They are supposed to win, they are supposed to kick our ass no matter what. We don't care about that.
"We are going to stick to the script and our identity and play through our DNA. Whatever happens, happens."
Team USA head coach John Wroblewski spoke about Hilary Knight's importance after the win over Canada.
"Hilary Knight is our captain. She's been doing this for a couple of decades here, and all the experiences that she had as a player, everything that Hilary's learned, infuses through our players."
Hilary Knight has recorded two goals and three assists in this tournament, making some history along the way.
She's now tied for both the most career goals and the most career points in U.S. Olympic history. She's level at 14 goals with Katie King and Natalie Darwitz, and at 32 points with Jenny Potter.
One goal tonight would give her both records outright.
After Team USA's win over Canada to cap the preliminary stage, Caroline Harvey discussed the prospect of facing the host nation in the quarterfinals.
“That'd be exciting. The fans have been unbelievable here, so I'm sure there will be another great crowd. I’m so happy for them. They've had some great wins, so it'd be cool when we face off against them.”
Italy's players are certainly excited to have reached this stage of the women's hockey tournament, the first time they've advanced to the knockout stage at the Olympics.
Marta Mazzocchi: "No one would ever believe we would be going to the quarterfinals. All the work we have put in the past few months shows. Now (today's game) will be a big one. It will be awesome."
Laura Fortino: "No one believed in this group from day one but us, so I am so proud, and this is such a special experience. We put Italy hockey on the map this tournament and we showed we can compete with the top countries, and making the quarterfinals is a statement for us."
Board games became contact sports, hockey was incredibly competitive and even pool volleyball left Joy Dunne with busted lips.
Follow the link below to learn how growing up with five hockey siblings helped Dunne reach the mountaintop of the sport.
GO FURTHER
Joy Dunne, U.S. women’s hockey’s youngest player, is making her mark at the Olympics
Team USA has posted three straight shutouts, holding Finland, Switzerland and Canada off the scoresheet. The last time an opponent scored on the U.S. was 8:37 into the second period of the opening game against Czech Republic, meaning no one has scored on the Americans over the last 211:23 of play.
Team USA earned the top seed in the quarterfinals after winning all four of its preliminary games in dominant fashion, outscoring opponents 20-1 along the way.
The win over Canada was that nation's biggest defeat ever at the Olympics in women's hockey.
This was the fifth time (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010) the U.S. was perfect in preliminary play.
The first quarterfinal of the women's hockey tournament is in the books, with Sweden edging Czech Republic 2-0 thanks to a goal in the second period from Hanna Olsson and an empty-netter from Hilda Svensson late on. Czech Republic outshot Sweden 13-5 in the third period and had two power plays but couldn't break through.
This is ostensibly an upset, given Czech Republic were in the top-seeded Group A and Sweden were in Group B.
Sweden advances to the semifinals, where they are very likely to face Team USA, assuming the Americans take care of business today. Sweden are seeking their first medal in women's hockey since 2006, coincidentally the last time the Winter Olympics were held in Italy.
All events have concluded. See full medal count.
Italy went 2-0-0-2 in group play to reach the knockout stage as the eighth and final seed. The host nation beat France 4-1 and Japan 3-2 but lost to Sweden 6-1 and Germany 2-1.
This is the first time the Italian women's hockey team has reached the knockout stage of the Olympic tournament, something the past two host nations (China in 2022, Korea in 2018) failed to do.
Today's game marks the first-ever meeting between Team USA and Italy not only at the Olympics, but in international competition as a whole, given the two teams have never met at a Women's World Championship tournament either.
Not to get too far ahead of ourselves … but we're all expecting a rematch between Team USA and Canada in the gold-medal game, right?
Given that, you'll be interested to know that Marie-Philip Poulin was a full participant in Canada's practice today. Head coach Troy Ryan said it's still too early to say whether she will play in tomorrow's quarterfinal against Germany.
Poulin, whom many consider to be the best player in the history of women's hockey, was injured in a preliminary game and missed Canada's 5-0 loss against the U.S.
Aerin Frankel (USA)
Gabriella Durante (Italy)
Here were the top performers in the preliminary stage, when each nation played four games.
Points
Goals
Assists
The Milan Cortina Games mark the eighth Winter Olympics to feature women's hockey. You'll notice a pattern looking at the previous results — and that pattern is expected to hold this year…
(Gold – Silver – Bronze)
The 10 teams were divided into two groups, with each team playing every team in its group once. The groups were purposefully unbalanced, with the five highest-ranked teams — Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland — all in Group A. Group B consisted of Sweden, Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
This structure existed to create more competitive games in group play, given the significant talent gap between the favorites (especially Canada and the United States) and the rest of the field. All teams in Group A advanced to the quarterfinals, with their ranking in group play determining their seed. The top three teams in Group B joined them; the bottom two were eliminated.
Who will win today's quarterfinal? And who will ultimately win the gold medal in women's hockey?
We’d love to hear your thoughts, opinions and predictions for the Milan Cortina Games.
Email us at live@theathletic.com, and we'll take the best submissions and feature them in our coverage here!
Today's game will be played at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena. This venue is located in the heart of the Milano Ice Park, right next to where long track speedskating takes place.
Rho Arena has a capacity between 5,000 and 6,000 spectators. Its intimate atmosphere allows fans to be closer to the ice to witness the speed of hockey.