{"id":479770,"date":"2026-02-17T03:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479770\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T03:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:45:08","slug":"heated-rivalry-between-canada-and-u-s-comes-down-to-yet-another-womens-gold-medal-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479770\/","title":{"rendered":"Heated rivalry between Canada and U.S. comes down to yet another women\u2019s gold-medal showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s goalkeeper Ann-Renee Desbiens faces the U.S.’s Tessa Janecke during a preliminary round match of women’s hockey in Milan on Feb. 10.Hassan Ammar\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

On the ice or on television, there\u2019s no heated rivalry quite like this one.<\/p>\n

Canada and the United States are locked in for another gold-medal showdown in women\u2019s hockey \u2013 the seventh time these two teams have met in the final of the Olympics.<\/p>\n

It is a feud unlike anything else in hockey. <\/p>\n

In their previous six gold-medal meetings at the Olympics, Canada has won four times, the U.S. twice. <\/p>\n

Four times the matchups have been decided by a 3-2 score; one of those was settled in overtime, another came down to a shootout.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that close, that bitter, that tense.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Renata Fast, right, and Switzerland’s Laura Zimmermann during the women’s hockey semifinal game in Milan on Monday.Hassan Ammar\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to scratch and claw and absolutely bring our best game,\u201d Canadian forward Brianne Jenner said Monday after Canada won its semi-final over Switzerland<\/a> to advance to Thursday\u2019s final in Milan.<\/p>\n

Playing in her fourth Olympics, Jenner is a veteran of these battles. She was there for Canada\u2019s narrow overtime win in 2014, she endured the painful shootout loss to the U.S. in 2018, and she helped reclaim the gold in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that it\u2019s going to take a brave, courageous, gutsy effort in the final. We\u2019ve been there before, we know how to do it and it\u2019s just a matter of us showing up,\u201d Jenner said.<\/p>\n

Since the women\u2019s game debuted at the Olympics in 1998, it has always been a polarized battle between these two countries. Only once \u2013 when Canada beat Sweden for gold in 2006 \u2013 has it not come down to the two superpowers of women\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Olympic hockey demonstrates how good the NHL could be, but isn\u2019t<\/a><\/p>\n

But the road to the final at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics<\/a> is much different this year than any of their previous matchups.<\/p>\n

The U.S. comes into Thursday\u2019s game riding high, after steamrolling Canada 5-0 in the preliminary round and cruising through the tournament with a young, fast, offensively gifted roster that has dominated the field.<\/p>\n

The Canadians have struggled, not only against the Americans, but also in a narrow 2-1 win over the Swiss in the semi-final. <\/p>\n

And prior to Milan, Canada was overpowered in the Rivalry Series, a tune-up for the Olympics, losing all four exhibition matches to the Americans in November and December.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S.’s Caroline Harvey, left, and Cayla Barnes, right, chase Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin during Rivalry Series action in Edmonton on Dec. 10, 2025.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

But the gold medal game is just that: one game. Forget recent events. Anything can happen in 60 minutes, the Canadian players insist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can beat anyone,\u201d defender Jocelyne Larocque said. \u201cYou can learn from the past, but the past isn\u2019t going to dictate anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larocque is emblematic of just how tense the rivalry between these two teams is. She\u2019s won two gold medals against the Americans, but when Canada fell 3-2 in a shootout in 2018, she was so upset she refused to wear her silver medal on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times that our game plan slips and we have to make sure that we don\u2019t slip from our game plan,\u201d Larocque said.<\/p>\n

Forward Blayre Turnbull doesn\u2019t expect an easy game, but she said Canada has moved on from its struggles earlier in the tournament, notably an apparent knee injury to captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who missed two games, including the loss to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter who you\u2019re playing, you\u2019re playing for an Olympic gold medal. It\u2019s going to be the hardest game you\u2019re playing in your whole life,\u201d Turnbull said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to show up ready to go \u2013 and then we\u2019re going to bring home a gold medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medals or not, at this Olympics it\u2019s good to be Canadian, say athletes<\/a><\/p>\n

Still, Canada is in unfamiliar territory as the clear underdog. <\/p>\n

\u201cI personally love the underdog mentality,\u201d defender Renata Fast said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of noise on the outside, but there\u2019s been tons of belief in the locker room, and we\u2019ve gone through a ton of adversity this year,\u201d Fast said.<\/p>\n

Canada has brought a veteran team to Milan. Though they were outpaced by the Americans in their first meeting, Fast said their experience will matter when they hit the sport\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core of this group has transformed this program to where we are today and this is the moment we have been fighting for \u2013 to play for gold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Poulin, who scored both of Canada\u2019s goals to send them past the Swiss in Monday\u2019s semi-final, will be leaned on heavily.<\/p>\n

Playing in her fifth Olympics, the 34-year-old is known as Captain Clutch for her ability to deliver in the biggest moments.<\/p>\n

Widely considered the best women\u2019s hockey player in the world, Poulin scored the deciding goal to win gold in Vancouver in 2010, Sochi 2014, and Beijing 2022.<\/p>\n

Asked Monday if this may be her last game at the Olympics, Poulin couldn\u2019t say. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t thought that far yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Follow our live daily coverage<\/a> of the Winter Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s goalkeeper Ann-Renee Desbiens faces the U.S.’s Tessa Janecke during a preliminary round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,2922,4963,187287],"class_list":{"0":"post-479770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-olympicstaff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}