Who can break the North American hold in Milano Cortina 2026?

“Anything can happen in women’s hockey,” says Swiss forward Alina Müller, a player intimately familiar with this mindset. At Sochi 2014, at the age of 15, Müller scored the game-winning goal in the bronze-medal match, becoming the youngest player ever to win an Olympic medal in women’s ice hockey.

Now, looking across her two Olympic cycles, she believes the challengers are no longer on the fringes. Finland and Czechia, she says, have made decisive steps forward in international tournaments, particularly in matching the physicality and pace of their North American counterparts.

“They have very, very strong players who can keep up with the athleticism that the U.S. and Canada have,” Müller explains. “We’ve seen it before. They’ve given them a tough time. The gap is getting closer.”

Müller also reveals a potential point of weakness. Dominant teams, she notes, are used to controlling the puck, scoring early, and playing from ahead. In tight games, that comfort can quickly disappear. “If you can defend well, stick to a system, and somehow make them change their style because they’re not five goals ahead, that’s when they can get nervous,” she says.

Czechia have made an identity out of creating such discomfort. 

Physical, fearless, and increasingly talented, the young Czech team relishes making life difficult for its opponents. Rising forward and PWHL’s 2025 No. 1 draft pick, Kristýna Kaltounková, sums it up:

“We’re a tough bunch,” the Czech player says. “A lot of us love to play physical. Then we have smaller players who are fast and creative, and it all works together. We put up a fight, we play with our hearts, we make it hard for the other team and we battle until the last second.” That edge is sometimes met with a penalty or two, but it is a risk they are willing to take to disorient their opponents.  

The tactic was evident at the most recent World Championships, where host nation Czechia pushed the United States to the limit in a tense 2–1 semi-final loss that exposed just how small the margins have become at the top of the game.