{"id":457317,"date":"2026-02-13T23:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T23:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/457317\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T23:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T23:38:20","slug":"uss-womens-hockey-crushes-italy-in-2026-olympic-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/457317\/","title":{"rendered":"US’s women’s hockey crushes Italy in 2026 Olympic quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Team USA\u2019s inexorable march towards women\u2019s hockey gold took another step on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Americans rolled past Italy in the quarterfinals, dispatching the Italians 6-0 in a match that was never competitive and never in doubt. <\/p>\n

A lot like their four preliminary games.<\/p>\n

As Ilia Malinin reminded the world<\/a> in brutal fashion while this game was going on, there are no guarantees.<\/p>\n

But unless Canada \u2014 which couldn\u2019t give Team USA a game in the prelims, albeit with superstar Marie Philip-Poulin out due to injury \u2014 can somehow get on equal footing in a potential rematch, it\u2019s hard to picture Team USA even being seriously challenged.<\/p>\n

\"KendallKendall Coyne of the United States celebrates scoring their third goal with teammates against Italy in a women\u2019s ice hockey quarterfinal during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 13. David W Cerny\/Reuters via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Americans might be to these Winter Games what the U.S. women\u2019s basketball team usually is to the Summer Games.<\/p>\n

Team USA\u2019s semifinal on Monday will be against Sweden, barring Germany upsetting Canada on Friday.<\/p>\n

Through five games, Team USA has outscored its opposition 26-1. <\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t allowed a goal in 271:23 and have four consecutive shutouts.<\/p>\n

Team USA possessed the puck constantly on Friday night. <\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t a single line or pair that didn\u2019t dominate. <\/p>\n

Their retrievals, their battles, their play on the walls and below the hashes were all superlative.<\/p>\n

They gave up two shots in the first period and two in the second, after which the score was 6-0. <\/p>\n

Then they gave up two in the third. <\/p>\n

\"UnitedUnited States\u2019 Britta Curl-Salemme (17) celebrates with Megan Keller (5) after Curl scored a goal against Italy during the second period of a women\u2019s ice hockey quarterfinal match at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

It was as close to a perfect game as you will ever see.<\/p>\n

Gabriella Durante, Italy\u2019s netminder, almost singlehandedly kept this game close through the first period.<\/p>\n

The Yanks took a 1-0 lead on Megan Keller\u2019s one-timer at 13:31 of the first, but it could easily have been 5-0 after 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

That it wasn\u2019t at least 2-0 was due only to Durante\u2019s ridiculous stick save on Abbey Murphy in the last few seconds of the period.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t last long, though. Team USA scored a trio of goals in a four-minute span starting at 1:41 of the second, with Kendall Coyne Schofield striking twice before Laila Edwards scored on a delayed penalty.<\/p>\n

Edwards\u2019 goal came right after Italy coach Eric Bouchard called a timeout to calm his team down. <\/p>\n

The timeout, obviously, did not work, and Bouchard was slamming the bench door and screaming at the referees later in the period when Britta Curl-Salemme made it 5-0 shorthanded, believing the refs had missed a penalty on the United States.<\/p>\n

Both benches, by the end of the night, were almost as compelling as the game. <\/p>\n

USA coach John Wroblewski jawed back and forth with an Italian assistant coach after Hannah Bilka scored the Americans\u2019 sixth goal of the night, after which Murphy and Franziska Stocker got into a shoving match.<\/p>\n

The competitive part of the game, by then, was long over.<\/p>\n

The competitive part of the Olympics has yet to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Team USA\u2019s inexorable march towards women\u2019s hockey gold took another step on Friday night. The Americans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,4211,2602,43,3255,2787,31286,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-457317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-team-usa","13":"tag-winter-olympics","14":"tag-winter-olympics-2026","15":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116065961146513276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457317","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=457317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}