Team USA heads to women

Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots for her third shutout of the Olympic women’s hockey tournament and top-seeded United States advanced to the gold medal game by defeating Sweden 5-0 at the Milan Cortina Games on Monday.

Murphy Abbey, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra scored on consecutive shots at 2:47 late in the second period to break the game open and put the Americans up 5-0. Cayla Barnes opened the scoring and Taylor Heise also scored.

The Americans continued their streak throughout the tournament improving to 6-0 and outscoring their opponents by a combined 31-1. The United States is not yet trailing or tied after 0-0, and is in position to become the third women’s team to do so in the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010.

The United States also extended its shutout streak to 331 minutes and 23 seconds, dating back to Czech Barbora Jurickova’s victory over Frankel on a breakaway in the second period of a 5-1 victory in the tournament opener.

Monday’s game showed the dominance of the United States but also the physicality of the team, with several fights on the ice.

The victory over Sweden sets up what could well be a seventh gold medal showdown against Canada on Thursday. The Canadians, the defending Olympic champions, play Switzerland in the day’s other semifinal match.

The United States already beat Canada 5-0 in a preliminary round match last week. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, and Canada won the other five tournaments.

All but one of the Olympic gold medal games in women’s hockey have been between the United States and Canada.

This is Coyne Schofield’s fourth trip to the Olympic Games. Previously he took home one gold and two silvers. This is captain Hilary Knight’s fifth trip to the Olympic Games. He has won four medals, taking home one gold and three silvers.

Knight, during a preliminary round game against Canada on February 10, tied the all-time U.S. women’s hockey record for most Olympic points. The 5-0 game was the largest margin of victory ever seen in the Olympic hockey rivalry between the United States and Canada, according to Team USA.

Sweden will play for bronze on Thursday in an effort to medal for the third time in team history, and the first since winning silver at the 2006 Turin Games after defeating the United States in the semifinals.

Ebba Svensson Traff stopped 19 of 23 shots before being pulled after Coyne Schofield cleared Laila Edwards’ shot from the blue line with 3:50 left in the second period.

Emma Soderberg took control of the goal and was beaten by Scamurra, who took advantage of a centering pass from Britta Curl-Salemme 1:49 later. Soderberg finished with 10 saves.

Among those in attendance was former NFL center Jason Kelce, who appeared on the scoreboard applauding the goal initially credited to Edwards. Kelce is from Edwards’ hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and he and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, contributed to a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Edwards’ family to attend the Milan Cortina Games.

Sweden enjoyed a breakthrough this year with a young and talented group that features seven players competing in the U.S. collegiate ranks. Sweden went 4-0 to win Group B and then defeated Czechia 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

Although the Swedes kept the game tied for 35 minutes, the Americans eventually wore them down.

And the United States certainly didn’t look like a team that didn’t want to play Sweden, as coach Ulf Lundberg suggested after the Swedes beat Czechia in the quarterfinals.

Although the Swedes kept the United States mostly on the perimeter in the first period, they were still outshot 13-2.

Barnes scored on a shot from the top of the right circle and beat Svensson Traff on the short side. Barnes’ goal was his first point of the tournament, leaving seventh defenseman Rory Guilday as the only American skater yet to record a point in six games.

Heise made it 2-0 at 9:08 of the second half thanks to a backhand pass from Hannah Bilka up the middle. Svensson Traff shot with his glove, but the puck deflected across his body and into the net from the inside of his stick.