{"id":452613,"date":"2026-02-09T22:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452613\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T22:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:16:22","slug":"winter-olympics-2026-u-s-womens-hockey-blank-switzerland-set-stage-for-canada-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452613\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics 2026: U.S. women’s hockey blank Switzerland, set stage for Canada showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team hasn\u2019t asked for much from its goalies so far during these Olympics<\/a>, but Gwyneth Philips came through Monday night when the Americans needed her.<\/p>\n

She robbed Switzerland\u2019s Rahel Enzler late in the first period when the U.S.\u2019 5-0 victory was still very much in doubt.<\/p>\n

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With underdog Switzerland trailing by a single goal and beginning a two-minute power play, Swiss forward Ivana Wey fed a slick pass to teammate Rahel Enzler who was camped out all by herself in front of the American net. It appeared that Enzler\u2019s one-timer would find the open right side of the net, but Philips extended her right arm just in time and calmly made a glove save.<\/p>\n

That deft save from Philips and several others kept the U.S. in front on a night when its high-octane offense never found top gear. The Americans didn\u2019t open a two-goal advantage until less than six minutes remained in the second period and didn\u2019t put the game away until early in the third.<\/p>\n

Philips had been the backup goalie behind Aerin Frankel for the U.S.\u2019s first two games of group play against Czechia and Finland. She stepped into the starting lineup against Switzerland, bailed out her teammates on multiple occasions when they were struggling and proved the Americans have two goalies they can trust.<\/p>\n

A less-dominant-than-expected victory over Switzerland improves the U.S. to 3-0 entering its most anticipated game of group play.\u00a0 The Americans renew their decades-old rivalry with Canada in a matchup of co-favorites who have combined to win every Olympic or World Championships gold medal.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. edged Canada in the gold-medal match at last year\u2019s World Championships and swept four straight Rivalry Series games against the Canadians in November and December, but Canada had the upper hand in the rivalry prior to that. Many of the stars of Canada\u2019s 2022 Olympic championship team have returned to make another run in Milan.<\/p>\n

For the U.S. to take down its neighbors to the North, the Americans will need the scoring punch they displayed in Monday night\u2019s third period and not the lethargy of the first and second. Several scoring opportunities went to waste early in the game as Taylor Heise was unable to convert a breakaway and Tessa Janecke\u2019s backhander clanged off the post.<\/p>\n

It took a lucky break for the U.S. to even scratch out its second goal. Joy Dunne won a loose puck behind the Swiss net and tried a sweeping backhand shot. The puck would have slid well wide of the net, but it ricocheted off the outside of defender Stefanie Wetu\u2019s right skate and into an open net.<\/p>\n

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The third period was a different story as Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter and Caroline Harvey each got pucks past Swiss goalie Andrea Braendu. The U.S. also had a Hayley Scamurra goal taken off the scoreboard early in the third period when referees ruled teammate Joy Dunne had interfered with Braendu in the crease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team hasn\u2019t asked for much from its goalies so far during these…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[19,46986,5,54887,6711],"class_list":{"0":"post-452613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-gwyneth-philips","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-rahel-enzler","12":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116042988571082274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452613","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=452613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}