{"id":448910,"date":"2026-02-06T13:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/448910\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:41:12","slug":"usa-downs-czech-republic-on-day-1-of-olympic-womens-hockey-headlined-by-norovirus-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/448910\/","title":{"rendered":"USA downs Czech Republic on Day 1 of Olympic women\u2019s hockey headlined by norovirus outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MILAN \u2014 A team full of star power, the United States women got a balanced attack, including two goals from their 13th forward and a hard-working goal from their fourth line, as the Americans opened the 2026 Olympics with a 5-1 win against the Czech Republic, also known as Team Czechia.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is now 8 for 8 to open the Olympics all-time.<\/p>\n

In just 6:45 of ice time, Hayley Scamurra scored two goals and fourth-liner Joy Dunne scored her first career Olympic goal as the United States rolled. Czech goalie Kl\u00e1ra Peslarov\u00e1 was tested early and often, making 37 saves on 42 shots, while Aerin Frankel stopped all but one of the 14 shots she faced.<\/p>\n

The game was played with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in attendance with his wife and kids, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance stood up and cheered for five American goals scored by Scamurra, Dunne, Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love our government representation, that everybody\u2019s pulling for us and everybody back home,\u201d coach John Wroblewski said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carpenter and Tessa Janecke each had two points.<\/p>\n

Czechia next plays Friday against Switzerland, while the Americans are at least scheduled to play Finland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Finland\u2019s game against Canada on Thursday was postponed until Feb. 12 due to a norovirus outbreak on the Finnish team. Thirteen players were quarantined at the athletes\u2019 village after being either stricken by or exposed to the virus.<\/p>\n

USA GM Katie Million said the IOC hasn\u2019t given direction yet as to whether Saturday\u2019s game will go on as scheduled, but there is a medical meeting scheduled for Thursday night and they hope more information will be shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re planning on playing Finland, until somebody tells me differently,\u201d Wroblewski said after the game. \u201cFinland\u2019s got a new coaching staff, so we don\u2019t know anything about them. We were hoping to get maybe just one look.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I hope that they\u2019re OK. That\u2019s the most important part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight climbing charts<\/p>\n

Heading into Thursday\u2019s game, only Hockey Hall of Fame forwards Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser had scored in five Winter Olympics. We can now add Hilary Knight, who is playing in her fifth and final Olympics, to that list.<\/p>\n

Her goal was a beauty as she took Carpenter\u2019s pass in the neutral zone, lowered her shoulders and outhustled the defender to the net for her first goal of the tournament and to give Team USA a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n

It was Knight\u2019s 13th goal at the Olympics, which puts her just one off the United States record held by Natalie Darwitz and Katie King. It was also her 28th point \u2014 four away from Jenny Potter\u2019s all-time record.<\/p>\n

The goal came after Wroblewski tweaked the lines from the United States\u2019 four Rivalry Series wins. He cited chemistry as the big reason he added Hannah Bilka to the top line alongside Carpenter and Knight; all three play together on a line for the PWHL Seattle Torrent. Britta Curl-Salemme was also moved up to the second line with Minnesota Frost teammate Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy, while Janecke moved from first-line left wing to fourth-line center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely nice to have that familiarity,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cWe\u2019re really lucky in that regard that we get to play together pretty much all season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huge night for Scamurra<\/p>\n

At 31 years old, this is Scamurra\u2019s second Olympics, and despite getting limited ice time, she is pivotal to this U.S. roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to say she kicks ass,\u201d said Abbey Murphy. \u201cShe puts her head down, she grinds. She\u2019s such a good mentor for us younger kids. You know, just the definition of a hard, hard-working player. And she deserves every little bit of that love. Just a hell of a game for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt she made the most of her ice time with her two goals coming in her first 4:42.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible,\u201d Scamurra said. \u201cWhenever I go out there, I just try to bring all the energy that I can to the team. To be able to produce is the cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wroblewski said, \u201cThere are certain players that are at the peak of what they do, and she\u2019s the hardest, most difficult player and the one that wants to be here, maybe the most out of anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at everybody else, they\u2019re like a first-round, quote-unquote top-10 or top-five pick. And then you got Scams, who probably if you look at the men\u2019s side, would be somebody who\u2019s drafted in the later rounds. But she\u2019s as pivotal a part of this team as anybody we have. And I was adamant we weren\u2019t going to Milan without her at the start of this quad. She carries so much spirit to this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunne breaks through<\/p>\n

After Wednesday\u2019s practice, Wroblewski spoke about Joy Dunne and how it was only a matter of time before Dunne scored for Team USA.<\/p>\n

To fact check the coach: Dunne has scored in a U.S. jersey at the 2024 women\u2019s world championship in Utica, but the point still stands. That it was only a matter of time before she found the back of the net in Milan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to be a prognosticator,\u201d Wroblewski said Thursday night. \u201cI was pumped for her. You want to surround Hilary and company with the right players to get her that medal at the end of all this. That\u2019s a big part of our motivation as a staff and how we picked this team is to end her legacy the right way. And Joy Dunne does a lot of things well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer Rivalry Series in succession is what validated her on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunne is a player Wroblewski felt really earned her roster spot on the Olympic team through the little details of her game. She has size (5-foot-11) and incredible compete. She wins puck battles and she\u2019s strong on the back check.<\/p>\n

So even though she hadn\u2019t scored since 2024, Wroblewski saw her as a valuable player to have on this talented roster \u2014 and someone to watch.<\/p>\n

The goal came off a sweet setup from Janecke \u2014 the first of two goals in 1:23 as the Americans quickly turned a 1-0 lead into 3-0 to seize control.<\/p>\n

Laila Edwards makes her Olympic debut<\/p>\n

When she hit the ice on Thursday, starting the game on the top defense pair beside Megan Keller, Laila Edwards became the first Black woman to play for Team USA at a women\u2019s Olympic hockey tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Edwards said after the game. \u201cI take a lot of pride in it. And I\u2019m just going to embrace it because representation matters, no matter how uncomfortable it can be. It\u2019s for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards made her national team debut back in November 2023, and said she has gotten more comfortable talking about representation and being a role model at just 22 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not do interviews or not talk about it, but then it doesn\u2019t get out there,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd maybe a little girl doesn\u2019t see (somebody) who looks like her and that\u2019s what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards\u2019 Olympic debut was just her 15th game for Team USA since being moved from forward to defense last season. She tallied an assist on the team\u2019s first goal of the tournament and played over 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Czech\u2019s lone goal<\/p>\n

Two minutes after taking an interference penalty on Edwards, Czech forward Barbora Jurickova jumped out of the penalty box to score Czechia\u2019s lone goal of the game.<\/p>\n

Jurickova, who started the game as the Czech\u2019s 13th forward, skated in alone against Frankel with all five American power-play players pushing into the zone. As their time on the advantage expired, Abbey Murphy had a shot blocked and, on a beautiful play, Nat\u00e1lie Ml\u00fdnkov\u00e1 spotted Jurickova coming out of the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a nice heads-up play,\u201d said Czechia head coach Carla MacLeod. \u201cThe wherewithal to understand where you\u2019re at a penalty kill and then Jurickova called for it up the ice. (There was) a nice tape-to-tape pace and a really nice finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a game like this, you\u2019re just going to need to capitalize on those opportunities that you generate. We followed that up with a crossbar not too much longer after that. So you got to be really excited about what\u2019s going on and where we\u2019re at \u2014 and still lots to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics.\u00a0 MILAN \u2014 A team full of star power,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[1471,5,1765,2337,1766,4,2602,3105,44123,1472,44372,1581,54279],"class_list":["post-448910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-boston-fleet","tag-hockey","tag-minnesota-frost","tag-montreal-victoire","tag-new-york-sirens","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-ottawa-charge","tag-seattle-torrent","tag-toronto-sceptres","tag-vancouver-goldeneyes","tag-womens-hockey","tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116023976500387632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}