{"id":181308,"date":"2026-02-17T10:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181308\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:24:22","slug":"olympics-u-s-womens-hockey-beats-sweden-reaches-gold-medal-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181308\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics: U.S. women’s hockey beats Sweden, reaches gold-medal game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For the U.S. women\u2019s hockey team, the Milan-Cortina Olympic<\/a> tournament has been less a competition and more a siege.<\/p>\n

With Monday\u2019s 5-0 semifinal victory<\/a> over Sweden, the U.S. is unbeaten in six games, has outscored its opposition 31-1 and hasn\u2019t given up a goal since the second period of its first game, running its scoreless streak to more than 331 minutes, the longest in tournament history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best team in the world,\u201d Sweden\u2019s Hanna Olsson said. \u201cThey are really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody was arguing with that assessment because the Olympics have been more one-sided than an avalanche for the U.S.. Fifteen different Americans have scored, 11 have multiple goals. The U.S. has scored at least five times in each of its six games, scored at least one goal in 16 of the 18 periods it has played and has never trailed.<\/p>\n

\"Kendall <\/p>\n

Kendall Coyne Schofield, top left, celebrates with her teammates after scoring against Sweden in the second period Monday.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The U.S. hasn\u2019t just beaten teams, it has destroyed them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so lucky to be part of this group,\u201d goaltender Aerin Frankel<\/a> said. \u201cThere is so much talent in our locker room. It\u2019s so much fun to play with the best players in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

And those players will ride that huge wave of momentum into Thursday\u2019s gold-medal game, where it will face defending champion Canada, a 2-1 winner over Switzerland<\/a> in the other semifinal on a pair of second-period goals from Marie-Philip Poulin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goals Monday came from Cayla Barnes<\/a>, Taylor Heise<\/a>, Kendall Coyne Schofield<\/a>, Hayley Scamurra<\/a> and Abbey Murphy<\/a>, with the last three coming on consecutive shots in a 2-minute, 47-second span late in the second period, turning a close game into a rout. Hannah Bilka, who leads the tournament with four goals, had two assists while Frankel turned back 23 shots in pitching the Americans\u2019 fifth consecutive shutout in goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the way we play and the way we compete,\u201d forward Kirsten Simms said. \u201cWe always play as if it\u2019s 0-0 and it\u2019s a tight game. We\u2019re always pushing at the same level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe start off from the drop of the puck with that hunting game and kind of that downhill-style play. And I think we do a great job of sticking to that throughout the entire game, no matter what the score is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S. <\/p>\n

U.S. forward Abbey Murphy, right, scores past Sweden goalkeeper Ebba Svensson Traff in the second period Monday.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Asked if this team is best one she ever played for Simms, a two-time world championship medalist, didn\u2019t have to think long for an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy far,\u201d she said. \u201cEasily. 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the scary part. Simms also said the team hasn\u2019t peaked yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can always get better,\u201d he said said. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a ton of talent, top to bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. speed has given opponents fits in Milan but its passing, puck movement and situational awareness has been even better. At times the Americans have been so fast and so technical it appears as if they have two extra players on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing really successful right now,\u201d Simms said. \u201cWe just continue to play at that level and kind of show what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Frankel there will be plenty of time to judge where this U.S. ranks among the best of all time when the Olympics are over. For now, there\u2019s still one game to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019s hard to kind of zoom out while you\u2019re here and look at the big picture, because you\u2019re so focused on the day to day,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think when we look back at this tournament and what we\u2019ve done so far, it has been amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut obviously the job\u2019s not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was never any doubt that the Milan tournament would finish with a U.S.-Canada final since six of the previous seven Olympic tournaments ended that way. This time, however, there\u2019s a twist because it\u2019s the Americans who are ranked No. 1 in the world after beating Canada 5-0 earlier in the Milan-Cortina Games, running their winning streak over their northern neighbor to seven in a row.<\/p>\n

Beat Canada again on Thursday and the U.S. will collect its second gold medal in the last three Olympics. Stumble and all the talk of the U.S. having the best team of all time will be just that: talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want it so much. I want it more than anything I\u2019ve ever wanted in my life,\u201d Scamurra said. \u201cThe whole team feels the same way. This has been our end goal and we\u2019re one step from that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For the U.S. women\u2019s hockey team, the Milan-Cortina Olympic tournament has been less a competition and more a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[80958,85971,2194,85970,85974,85972,401,85973,48,52,51,47,50,49,5463,772,30512,5250,12785,80957,73694],"class_list":["post-181308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-abbey-murphy","tag-cayla-barnes","tag-goal","tag-gold-medal-game","tag-hannah-bilka","tag-hayley-scamurra","tag-hockey","tag-kendall-coyne","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-minute","tag-pass","tag-second-period","tag-shot","tag-sweden","tag-taylor-heise","tag-u-s-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}