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2026 Olympic
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Team USA has beaten Canada 5-0 at the 2026 Winter Olympics, handing the Canadians their worst-ever defeat in women's hockey at the Olympics.
Hannah Bilka scored two goals for Team USA while Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms and Laila Edwards each added one.
Canada was without team captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who suffered a lower-body injury against Czech Republic yesterday.
Team USA finishes the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0 record and will face hosts Italy in the quarterfinals.
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Jocelyne Larocque also spoke about how much Canada missed the injured Marie-Philip Poulin today: "She's the best player and the best teammate in the world. So quite a bit."
Canada head coach Troy Ryan also touched on what Poulin's absence meant: "She's irreplaceable. It changes a lot of things. I don't think that's the reason why we had the performance that we had tonight, but you just miss her everywhere. Your power play's a little less lethal, your penalty kill even at times, and then you just have the faceoff, winning those puck possession plays."
Ryan on when Poulin is expected to return: "I'm not sure. Tomorrow she'll be reassessed. I think it'd be doubtful that she'd be (ready) for our next one (against Finland on Thursday) but we're optimistic that she will return during these Olympics."
Ryan on the nature of her injury: "Just lower body. All I've been really told from medical is that it's not as bad as they originally thought, so we're definitely optimistic that she'll be back."
Jocelyne Larocque speaking after Canada's historic defeat: "It's obviously not an ideal game for us, but it's one of those things that we have two choices to make. We can dwell on this, or there's a lot to learn and get better. I have full trust in this team and confidence in this team that we're going to learn, we're going to get better. We're going to grow from it. So definitely not worried, but there are things we definitely need to clean up."
Brianne Jenner, who wore the captain's C in Marie-Philip Poulin's absence today, on what went wrong for Canada: "I don't think we did a great job managing the puck. We had a lot of opportunities that we kind of squandered ourselves and just didn't kind of take care of the details when they had their chances. It's pretty fresh. We talked a lot in between periods, but we'll learn from this. Our coaches will cut it up and figure out how we can be better, and we will be better."
Canada head coach Troy Ryan on what went wrong today: "Just a sloppy game on our part. Some poor puck management and (we) just seemed to not play with a lot of confidence. We bottled a lot of pucks and made some poor decisions. Hopefully, it's something we learn from."
Caroline Harvey on Team USA's performance: "For our team it's been great. We've been trying to build on each win, just the same game plan no matter who we're playing. It's been a lot of fun. I’m so blessed to have such amazing teammates. We're just enjoying every game we have and every opportunity.”
Kirsten Simms on Team USA's victory: "It's pretty special. This group has been unbelievable from the start of the tournament and I think we displayed that going against our known rivals. It's just good momentum for us going into the playoff rounds."
Team USA head coach John Wroblewski speaking after tonight's dominant win: “This group continues to grow and the leadership in the locker room has led to success on the ice. Today was another step toward our goal, and we’ll head into the quarterfinals ready to compete and keep this momentum rolling.”
The U.S. will face Italy in its quarterfinal on Friday at 9:10 p.m. CET, 3:10 p.m. ET at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena, per USA Hockey.
Our projections model now gives the U.S. a 60 percent likelihood of winning the gold medal at these Olympics, dropping Canada to 40 percent. A strong shift towards Team USA after today's emphatic 5-0 win over Canada. (And perhaps not nearly strong enough!)
There were two reviews on Kirsten Simms’ second period goal, her first at the Olympics.
First, the refs looked to ensure the puck completely crossed the line, which it did. Then, Ryan challenged for goaltender inference. After a lengthy review, the refs maintained it was a good goal, despite the clear contact in the crease.
Kristin O’Neill also got into the blue paint, so it’s fair to assume that negated Simms’ interference in the eyes of the refs. But the rulebook states that a goal would be disallowed if an attacking player impedes the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely and defend the goal.
The moment ultimately didn’t matter in the end. There was a lot more going wrong for Team Canada than a bad review. Just add it to the list of examples of puzzling goalie interference calls.
Tuesday was our first real look at Team Canada without Poulin, without the emotion and adrenaline of wanting to win for their captain on Monday night. And it wasn’t all that impressive.
Canada only mustered four shots on goal to Team USA’s two goals in the first period. By the end of the second, Canada still only had 10 shots. They failed to establish a consistent and strong forecheck and had several defensive miscues that led directly to goals by Team USA.
The Sarah Nurse, Sarah Fillier and Daryl Watts combo took on the “top line” role and only got two shots on goal. Ryan also went back to his faithful Laura Stacey, Blayre Turnbull and Emily Clark line that he called “an anchor” for the team. And to her credit, Stacey might have been Canada’s best player.
By now, we’ve all seen the videos of the moment Poulin was hit by Czech forward Kristýna Kaltounková. Poulin stayed down on the ice for a moment, grimacing, and eventually skated back to the bench, putting minimal weight on her right leg.
She did not play in Tuesday’s game, but was in attendance in a suite with No. 3 goalie Kayle Osborne — and was given a nice applause by the crowd when shown on the center-ice video screen at the start of the second period.
That Poulin did not play it isn’t really worth reading into. At least where her availability for the remainder of the tournament is concerned. There’s optimism from Canada that Poulin will be able to return at some point before the end of the tournament. When that happens is still in question.
In 2021, Poulin missed the U.S. preliminary round game — which Canada won 5-1 — after taking a puck to the throat. She returned in the quarterfinals to a minimal role to gear up for the gold medal game, where she scored another game-winner.
If Poulin indeed returns in Milan, we can likely expect something similar. There’s just no need to risk playing her until the group stage is over. As heated as the rivalry is, Tuesday night’s game only counts for placement with all five teams in Group A — including Canada — moving on to the quarterfinals.
Canada’s quarterfinal match is four days away (Feb. 14); A return in the semifinals (Feb. 16) would give Poulin even more time to rest and be at her best when it matters most for the Canadians.
Hilary Knight, the future Hockey Hall of Famer, was credited with the secondary assist on Harvey’s first-period goal.
That tied Jenny Potter’s United States Olympic record with 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists).
If she scores again in the tournament in what will be her final of five Olympics, it will break the record for most Olympic goals by an American. She shares that mark with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King.
“It’s hard to put into words,” 22-year-old Haley Winn said of playing with Knight, 36. “She’s someone a lot of us have looked up to since we were little. I know I have a picture with her from when I was probably seven or eight. So to be able to play on a team with her, it leaves you kind of speechless, and you learn so much from her on and off the ice.
“She’s a great mentor, so to see her do so well, it isn’t really a surprise for us, but she’s definitely leading the team by example. So we’re lucky to have her.”
Abbey Murphy’s fingerprints were all over this game.
She tallied three assists, including a no-look backhand pass for Bilka’s second goal of the night, and got under Canada’s skin at every opportunity. In the first period, she collided with Ann-Renee Desbiens and locked her legs around Canada’s goaltender, which drew the ire of Sarah Fillier who retaliated with an interference penalty.
Later in the game, Kristin O’Neill gave Murphy a crosscheck, which got a grin from Murphy as she got up and O’Neill went to the box. In all, Murphy drew four of Canada’s five penalties.
It was the personification of the perfect Abbey Murphy game with her eye-popping skill and ability to get into Canada’s head on display. Canada, meanwhile, played right into her hand, giving a dangerous American power play time to get to work.
Finland defeats Switzerland 3-1 to capture its first win of the Milan Cortina Games.
Vainikka, Liikala and Vanhanen were the goal scorers for Finland.
The Finns play Canada on Thursday. With their victory, Finland is fourth in the Group A standings, with an opportunity to move up to second (where Canada currently sits).
Team USA has eight players making their Olympic debut in Milan in 2026, and they're having an impressive tournament as a group thus far.
These eight players combined for four goals and two assists tonight.
Troy Ryan confirms that Team Canada is very optimistic that Poulin will return later in the tournament.
Seems unlikely for the Finland game obviously.
Coming into the game, Canada's second line of Sarah Fillier, Sarah Nurse and Daryl Watts had a strong start to the tournament. Fillier and Watts put goals on the board in the first two games.
But tonight the Americans’ speed was too much for this line. They were a combined -7.
Not good enough.
With a goal and two assists tonight, Caroline Harvey is now tied for the tournament lead at the 2026 Winter Olympics with seven points (two goals, five assists). Germany's Laura Kluge has also recorded seven points.
Harvey or Abbey Murphy is expected to be the first player selected in this summer's PWHL Draft.
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