Ten countries showed up to compete in women’s hockey at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. As usual, only two of them matter for the gold medal — and as usual, those two countries are the United States and Canada. Again. For the seventh time in eight Olympics since the sport debuted in 1998. Again.
If this feels familiar, that’s because it absolutely is. The rivalry between these two programs is less a storyline at this point and more a scheduling certainty, the kind of thing you could have circled on the calendar before a single puck dropped. The only real question heading into Thursday’s gold-medal game is which version of this story gets written this time.
What the U.S. has done to get here
The Americans have not been subtle about their intentions at these Games. Through six matches, the U.S. has scored 31 goals and allowed exactly one — a single goal, in the entire tournament, which now feels almost personal. That last goal against was 331 minutes and 23 seconds ago, a record for either men’s or women’s hockey at the Olympics. Fifteen different U.S. players have scored during that stretch, which means this is not a one-line offense carrying a passive defense. This team is deep, and it is rolling.
Nine days ago, these rivals met in group play. The U.S. won 5-0. It was the seventh consecutive win for the Americans against Canada across all competitions — a streak that would be remarkable against any opponent and is particularly pointed against this one.
What Canada needs to turn this around
Canada arrives at this gold-medal game having watched that group-play loss closely. Their own coaches and players acknowledged shaky confidence and missing focus after the 5-0 result, which is an unusually candid assessment for a program that does not typically invite doubt into the building. The Canadians also played that game without their most important player — forward Marie-Philip Poulin, who missed it with an injury.
Poulin is expected to be available Thursday, which changes things. Canada’s record in gold-medal games against the U.S. stands at 4-2 all-time, and the overall Olympic series sits 7-4 in Canada’s favor despite the Americans outscoring them in the aggregate. This program knows how to win this specific game. The question is whether the version that shows up Thursday resembles the team that won those four golds or the one that got shut out nine days ago.
What’s actually at stake
For the U.S., this is the completion of something that has been building for years. A dominant tournament performance, a seven-game winning streak against the sport’s only other dynasty and a gold-medal game at home — or close enough to it — in Milan. Defenseman Laila Edwards framed it plainly: the team has been challenged and has overcome it each time. That is not a boast. That is a program that knows exactly what it has done and what it still needs to do.
For Canada, this is the chance to remind everyone why the all-time record still tilts in their direction — and why one dominant tournament from a rival does not rewrite decades of gold-medal history. Poulin’s return adds the dimension Canada was visibly missing in group play, and this program has a well-documented habit of showing up when the stakes are highest.
Seven consecutive losses to the U.S. heading into a gold-medal game. Four gold medals in this exact matchup. One game Thursday to decide which number changes.
