{"id":454629,"date":"2026-02-11T18:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454629\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:09:09","slug":"team-usas-laila-edwards-makes-olympic-hockey-history-in-canada-shutout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454629\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA’s Laila Edwards Makes Olympic Hockey History in Canada Shutout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laila Edwards made Olympic hockey history<\/a> on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to score a goal for Team USA as the US secured a shutout 5-0 victory over rival Canada.<\/p>\n

The Ohio native’s tally sealed the group-stage win for Team USA. The historic moment also cemented the 2022 Beijing silver medalists<\/a> as the tournament’s top goalscorers, outscoring Olympic opponents 20-1 en route to clinching first place in Group A.<\/p>\n

Edwards called the milestone “an incredible honor” in an interview with CBS Mornings<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“I get to be the first of something and a role model for others,” she said.<\/p>\n

The University of Wisconsin<\/a> defender joined USA Women’s Hockey in 2023, becoming the squad’s first-ever Black player. Now competing in her first Olympic hockey tournament, Edwards continues breaking barriers at the highest level of international competition.<\/p>\n

“It’s clich\u00e9, but it’s my safe space,” Edwards said of the sport. “I just feel like I can be myself and do what I love.”<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old credits her family for helping her make the Olympic hockey team<\/a>. Her father started her in figure skating at age three, subsequently transitioning her to hockey two years later. <\/p>\n

“I definitely felt like I belonged, but there were times when there was a bit of intimidation, just being the only girl on my team,” Edwards recalled. “I was such a tomboy… basically one of them.”<\/p>\n

“There’s no rule book that says hockey is for boys,” she continued. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t do it if you love it.”<\/p>\n

What’s next for Team USA at the 2026 Olympic hockey tournament<\/p>\n

Team USA now leads the Olympic hockey standings<\/a> heading into the quarterfinals, delivering a perfect 4-0 group-stage record. They enter the knockout rounds as the gold medal favorite. <\/p>\n

The US now takes the ice against host nation Italy on Friday at 3:10 PM ET, live on Peacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laila Edwards made Olympic hockey history on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to score a goal for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[3189,3542,5,50354,422,38003],"class_list":{"0":"post-454629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-canada-hockey","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-laila-edwards","12":"tag-usa-hockey","13":"tag-wisconsin-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116053341885339305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454629","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=454629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}