At Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena, ‘Free Bird,’ the goal song of Team USA, has already rung out 31 times. With the Gold Medal match on the horizon, Team USA Women’s Hockey has dominated their competition in the preliminary rounds and blown through both Italy and Sweden in the knockouts, fueled by the six Badgers on the roster.
Now, after dominating Canada 5-0 in the preliminary round last week, Team USA will need to best their arch-rivals once again this Thursday with Gold on the line.
Preliminary opponents
Against their opponents in the preliminary round, Team USA only gave up one goal against Czechia in the Olympic opener.
Laila Edwards recorded an assist in that Czechia game, dishing out two more against Finland two days later.
Caroline Harvey also recorded an assist against Finland, then scored her first goal a game later against Switzerland, assisting on two others that game as well.
Road to the Gold
Despite the raised stakes of the knockout round, Team USA swept through Italy and Sweden in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Against Italy last Friday, Team USA outshot their hosts 51-6. Edwards and Harvey both recorded assists in the 6-0 win.
In the semifinals Monday, four of Team USA’s goals came within 10 minutes in the second period after a slow start against Sweden in the first.
Though Edwards shot the puck, a last minute tip into the net from Kendall Coyne-Schofield credited the goal to her. Edwards was given the assist.
Last time against Canada
In the eight Winter Olympics that women’s hockey has been a sport, USA and Canada have met in seven of those finals. But what should have been a neck-and-neck preliminary round game ended in Canada being shut out at the Olympics for the first time, with Team USA scoring five unanswered goals.
And, three of the four active Badgers — the fourth being goalkeeper Ava McNaughton — scored against Canada, with Team USA captain Hilary Knight and Britta Curl-Salemme also recording assists, both of whom are Badger alumni.
Harvey opened up scoring just under four minutes into the game, assisted by Knight.
Harvey currently leads the Olympic team in points — a form of measurement for contribution which assigns both goals and assists one point each. She has scored two goals and assisted in five over the four games of the preliminary round.
Edwards, who made history in Milan as the first Black woman to play for Team USA, became the first Black woman to score for Team USA, notching a third-period goal.
Kirsten Simms scored her first Olympic goal in the second period, making the game 3-0 against Canada and rounding out a hat-trick of Badger scorers.
Knight leads Team USA in points all-time, with her assist to Harvey tying her with Jenny Potter for all-time Olympic points. The women’s hockey legend announced in 2025 that these Olympics would be her last, aiming for her second gold medal in what would be a poetic ending to her international career.
Canada’s top player, Marie-Philipe Poulin, was notably absent against Team USA after taking a rough hit from a Czech defender the game prior.
Canada head coach Troy Ryan lamented her loss, calling Poulin “irreplaceable,” though he also criticized his own team’s play as ‘sloppy.’
“We bottled a lot of pucks and made some poor decisions,” he said after the game. “Hopefully, it's something we learn from."
Team USA will face off against Canada for gold on Thursday. Puck drop is at 12:10 p.m. and the game will be shown at the Sett Pub in Union South.
Annika Bereny is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the special pages editor. As a staff writer, she's written in-depth on campus news specializing in protest policy, free speech and historical analysis. She has also written for state and city news. She is a History and Journalism major. Follow her on Twitter at @annikabereny.
