{"id":200682,"date":"2026-02-17T04:39:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-womens-hockey-team-cruises-past-sweden-to-advance-to-gold-medal-game-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:39:04","slug":"u-s-womens-hockey-team-cruises-past-sweden-to-advance-to-gold-medal-game-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-womens-hockey-team-cruises-past-sweden-to-advance-to-gold-medal-game-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. women's hockey team cruises past Sweden to advance to gold medal game – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MILAN \u2014 The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team continued its run of dominance in the Olympics, defeating Sweden 5-0 Monday to advance to the gold medal game. The Americans will face Canada in Thursday\u2019s championship.
Through six games, Team USA is 6-0 and has outscored opponents 31-1.
Follow along for live coverage<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
\u201cThe energy is great. I think we\u2019re getting better as the tournament goes along,\u201d defenseman Laila Edwards told NBC News after the game. \u201cWhat I really respect about this group is that there\u2019s no sense of arrogance. We\u2019re just really confident. We\u2019ve dominated, but we\u2019re not complacent.\u201d
The U.S got on the board first with 14:51 left in the first period. Forward Kelly Pannek, moving with the puck behind the goal, found defenseman Cayla Barles alone on the right face-off circle. She took a second to square up and fired in a snapshot past Sweden goalie Ebba Traff Svensson\u2019s right glove for an early 1-0 lead. It was Barnes\u2019 first goal of the tournament.
The U.S. outshot Sweden 13-2 after the first period but didn\u2019t have much to show for it. That changed in the next period.
With 10:51 remaining in the second, Abbey Murphy had a great pass up the boards to Hannah Bilka, who drove toward the goal alone. At the last second, she dumped it back to a streaking Taylor Heise for a one-timer into the net for Heise\u2019s second goal of the tournament.
That opened the floodgates, as Kendall Coyne scored on a deflection less than one minute later and Hayley Scamurra tapped in the puck outside the crease just over a minute after that.
\u201cIt\u2019s just a lot of fun,\u201d forward and team captain Hilary Knight said. \u201cWe\u2019ve obviously put in a lot of work to lead ourselves to this opportunity, but it\u2019s fun when you really know what everyone else is doing out there and you can play at a fast level. That\u2019s what makes the game fast and fun, and when you\u2019re playing with skilled players, it\u2019s even more so.\u201d
And while Team USA has been unstoppable offensively, the same could be said about its defensive efforts. The current 331-minute, 23-second shutout streak is the longest in Olympic women\u2019s hockey history.
The other record worth watching? Knight is tied for the all-time Olympics goal-scoring mark for Team USA. She’s not concerned about getting it in the final.
\u201cWe\u2019ll see. I just want a gold medal,” she told NBC News. “However that looks, I\u2019m all for it.\u201d
The U.S. fell 3-2 in the gold medal game in 2022 to Canada for the silver medal. That heartbreaking result still stings, defenseman Carolina Harvey said, and she’s looking for a different result Thursday.
“The highs are great, but we feel the lows, so you remember that feeling,” she said. “We definitely want redemption, and that’s what we came here for.”
Greg Rosenstein is the sports editor for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeMILAN \u2014 The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team continued its run of dominance in the Olympics, defeating Sweden 5-0 Monday to advance to the gold medal game. The Americans will face Canada in Thursday\u2019s championship.Through six games, Team USA is 6-0 and has outscored opponents 31-1.Follow along for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-200682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}