Women's Olympic Ice Hockey
2026 Olympic
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The U.S. women’s hockey team has advanced to the gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, routing Sweden 5-0 in the semifinals in Milan.
Cayla Barnes opened the scoring just over five minutes into the game before Team USA pulled away with four goals in the second period, from Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra.
The U.S. will face the winner of Canada vs. Switzerland in the gold medal game on Thursday. It will be their seventh appearance in the final in eight editions of women’s hockey at the Games.
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Team USA head coach John Wroblewski speaking after the game:
“Today we got closer to our ultimate goal. We stayed tenacious and it paid off, and seeing contributions from so many players is a testament to this team. Now, we focus back in and prepare for Thursday’s gold medal game.”
The U.S. will learn who it's facing in the gold medal game when the second semifinal gets going in one hour, 15 minutes, at 3:10 p.m. ET. You can follow our live coverage of that game here.
When Edwards recorded up her fifth assist of the Olympics – this time a deflection by Kendall Coyne Schofield – television broadcast cameras almost immediately panned to the audience, where Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, were cheering on “the Queen of Cleveland.”
Edwards, 22, grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the same suburb of Cleveland as Jason and Travis Kelce, who have been supportive of Edwards’ career for years now.
The pair first gave Edwards a shoutout on their widely popular “New Heights” podcast when she became the first Black woman to make the U.S. women’s national team in November 2023. Then, leading into the Olympics, Edwards revealed that the Kelces donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe that was set up to help send the Edwards family to the Olympics.
Her mom, Charone, sister, Chayla, her grandmother Ernestine, and some aunts and cousins made it to Milan. So did Jason and Kylie Kelce, as part of a big support system for one of the rising stars of women’s hockey.
We know how deep the Americans are up front, but they are elite on the back end, too, especially with their mobility and offensive attack.
Part of coach John Wroblewski’s offensive plan is to activate his defenders constantly to create mayhem, unpredictability and ultimately confusion by opponents.
It’s a big reason the United States blue line has now combined for nine goals in the tournament after two more today by Barnes and Edwards.
The Bilka-Heise-Murphy line has been one of the United States’ best throughout the Olympics (with a combined 18 points) and the trio once again combined to break this game wide open.
Heise got things started by squeezing a shot through the legs of Svensson Träff off a two-on-one pass with Bilka to give the Americans an insurance goal. Then Murphy quickly made it 3-0 to open up the floodgates.
There aren’t too many players who would attempt the shot that Murphy took. There are even fewer who could make it.
Murphy took a feed from Bilka below the right faceoff dot. But rather than wheel around the net or cycle the puck back to a defender at the point, Murphy skated even deeper, then seemed to surprise Svensson Träff with a quick rising wrister that actually made the Swedish goalie duck. Svensson Träff waved at the puck as it went by, finding a barely-there hole between the goalie’s head and the post. It was just Murphy’s second goal of the tournament, but it was a doozy.
The Americans reached this point of the tournament by outscoring their opponents dramatically, so Sweden seemed determined not to let this one get away early. Throughout the first period, the Swedes packed the house and played five-on-five almost like a penalty kill, trying to keep the U.S. to the outside. And they were more than willing to sacrifice their own opportunities to do so. They were outshot 13-2, not getting their first shot until more than 11 minutes into the game, and getting their second in the final minute.
But after making it through that period down just 1-0, thanks in large part to goaltender Ebba Svensson Träff, the Swedes seemed emboldened to start the second. They came out far more aggressive and outshot the Americans 8-2 to open the period. A Hayley Scamurra tripping penalty gave Sweden its best chance to break through against Aerin Frankel, but the U.S. remained perfect on the penalty kill for the tournament, improving at the time to 9-for-9.
A little more than a minute later, Taylor Heise banked in a Hannah Bilka pass of Svensson Träff to make it 2-0, essentially ending the Swedish threat. Like they’ve done all tournament, the Americans pulled away in the period, scoring three goals in less than three minutes to close out the middle frame with a 5-0 lead. Svensson Träff was ultimately pulled after allowing the game’s fourth goal.
Hilary Knight was held off the scoresheet for a second straight game today, meaning her wait to take over sole possession of two records goes on. Those records are the all-time career U.S. totals for goals and points at the Olympics.
A goal in the gold medal game (presumably against Canada) would be a fine way to break both records at once.
Here's a look at the schedule for the remainder of the women's hockey tournament at the Olympics.
All events have concluded. See full medal count.
Hailey Salvian, Mark Lazerus and Michael Russo have brought us instant reaction to today's game, breaking down:
Follow the link below to check out their analysis.
GO FURTHER
Unbeaten USA women’s hockey team advances to Olympic gold medal game after rout of Sweden
Abbey Murphy (goal, assist) and Hannah Bilka (two assists) led the U.S. in points tonight with two apiece.
Caroline Harvey led Team USA players in ice time with 21:54. She was one of four players that eclipsed 20 minutes, joining Megan Keller, Laila Edwards and Haley Winn.
Harvey was a +2 in tonight’s semifinal victory, while Cayla Barnes led all players with a +3 rating.
Taylor Heise and Alex Carpenter jointly led the Americans in shots on goal with four.
Below are the team stats from Team USA's shutout victory over Sweden:
Shots on goal
Saves
Power play
Penalty minutes
Faceoffs
Team USA's shutout streak now stands at 331:23, more than 16 full periods of hockey.
The only goal they've conceded in this tournament came all the way back on February 5, before the Opening Ceremony!
A 5-0 loss is a really tough result, but Sweden should take a lot of pride in getting to the semifinal for the first time since 2014. This team had an impossible road to the gold medal game, with USA in its path, but gets to compete for the bronze medal. They haven’t taken home a medal since 2006 (silver), and won the bronze over 20 years ago, back in 2002 with a win over Finland.
Team USA has now outscored opponents 31-1 in this tournament. Complete domination.
The lone goal was scored by Barbora Jurickova of Czech Republic, on a breakaway as soon as she emerged from the penalty box.
With this 5-0 semifinal win over Team Sweden, USA is officially guaranteed a medal for the eighth straight Olympics. USA has played for gold in six of those seven tournaments, and won twice — in 1998 and 2018.
Now, USA will either get a chance at revenge against Canada, who took home the gold in Beijing in 2022, or Switzerland if they can pull off a shock upset.
Sweden fails to score on the power play despite a chance in the final seconds, and it's a shutout for Aerin Frankel.
The U.S. advances to the gold medal game! They'll face the winner of Canada vs. Switzerland on Thursday. Sweden heads to the bronze medal game, also on Thursday.
P3 1:26 – USA 5, Sweden 0
One last chance for Sweden to avoid a shutout, as Simms heads to the box for cross-checking.
There’s shot No. 20 for Sweden — Adolfsson fired the puck from the point and Frankel made the save.
That was about all that was left at stake here.
This has been one of Frankel’s busiest games yet. Team USA has only allowed 20+ shots twice this tournament: 20, to be exact, against Canada with Frankel in net, and 21 versus Switzerland with Philips in goal. Sweden has just over four minutes to reach that mark, with 19 shots so far. Otherwise, Frankel has only had to face 14 shots against Czech Republic and 11 versus Finland.
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