A transnational rivalry puts a flame to the ice. Olympic hockey is slowly heating up with ongoing preliminaries in Milan. Team USA is 3-0 so far, while Team Canada is 2-0. Just one side will remain unbeaten after Tuesday’s matchup. The Americans are feeling themselves after a four-game Rivalry Series sweep two months ago. The Canadians arrive as defending Olympic champions, having topped their archenemy in the 2022 gold-medal game. In their own ways, both sides seek revenge in northern Italy. He
Olympic hockey is slowly heating up with ongoing preliminaries in Milan. Team USA is 3-0 so far, while Team Canada is 2-0. Just one side will remain unbeaten after Tuesday’s matchup.
The Americans are feeling themselves after a four-game Rivalry Series sweep two months ago. The Canadians arrive as defending Olympic champions, having topped their archenemy in the 2022 gold-medal game. In their own ways, both sides seek revenge in northern Italy. Here’s what to know and when to tune in.
How to watch USA vs. Canada (Olympic women’s hockey)
Venue: Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena — Milan, Italy
Time: 2:10 p.m. ET, Tuesday
TV (U.S.): USA Network
TV (Canada): CBC
Streaming: Peacock (U.S.), CBC Gem (Canada)
The game will also re-air on USA at 11 p.m. ET.
The U.S. hosted the first two Rivalry Series clashes in November. It won both convincingly — 4-1 in Cleveland on Nov. 6, then 6-1 in Buffalo on Nov. 8. That home-and-home shifted to the Canucks come December, but results were more of the same. USA dominated Edmonton action, 14-5 on aggregate, to seal a 4-0 series skate.
Both sides glided past group opponents Monday. The U.S. beat Switzerland 5-0. Caroline Harvey and Joy Dunne each notched a goal and two assists. Hilary Knight added a pair of assists, and she can tie the national team’s Olympic record with one more. Meanwhile, Canada beat the Czech Republic 5-1. It cleared an early five-on-three penalty run, then flurried around Julia Gosling’s two goals.
The win came at a cost, though. Star Marie-Philip Poulin left the game after she took a tough first-period hit on the boards. Canada’s captain is one goal shy of the all-time Olympic scoring title.
USA’s previous victories came against Finland (5-0 on Saturday) and Czech Republic (5-1 on Feb. 5). Thus far, the team sports a lopsided 15-to-1 point differential. Alex Carpenter leads with three goals; Dunne and Knight have two each. Standout defender Laila Edwards, the “Queen of Cleveland,” is the first Black woman to rep the U.S. in Olympic tournament play.
Ascending goalkeeper Aerin Frankel has saved 24 of 25 shots across her first two Olympic starts. Alternates Gwyneth Philips and Ava McNaughton put up a combined shutout Monday.
Canada counters with Ann-Renee Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer at goalie. Desbiens stopped 18 of the 19 shots she faced Monday; Maschmeyer faced just six shots in her Saturday shutout of Switzerland. Up front, Gosling comes in with three scores in two games, and Sarah Fillier has found the back of the net in both outings.
This matchup helps determine the No. 1 seed for quarterfinals, which go down on Friday and Saturday. (Canada has one more preliminary match before that — its game against Finland was postponed until Thursday due to a norovirus outbreak.)
Both juggernauts expect to meet atop the podium in the gold-medal finale next Thursday, Feb. 19. In the 2022 final, Poulin scored twice and Desbiens stonewalled the Americans for a 3-2 maple leaf triumph.
Medal history in women’s hockey
Here’s how the countries stack up since 1998, when the Winter Olympics added women’s hockey as an official discipline. Thus far, all seven golds have gone to one of these two nations.
U.S.
1998: Gold
2002: Silver
2006: Bronze
2010: Silver
2014: Silver
2018: Gold
2022: Silver
Canada
1998: Silver
2002: Gold
2006: Gold
2010: Gold
2014: Gold
2018: Silver
2022: Gold
In-depth coverage from The Athletic
Michael Russo on USA coach John Wroblewski and consultant Ellen Hughes:
“‘Wrobo,’ as he’s known to players and staff, felt the women’s program was missing one piece: a liaison who could work with the players and be a buffer between him and them. Somebody they would trust to talk to about their game, their life. Somebody who would always be a phone call away. And he knew the perfect person.”
Hailey Salvian on Canada’s Kati Tabin:
“Five years before becoming a Canadian Olympian, Kati Tabin was a hockey player crashing on a friend’s couch. She was playing for the Connecticut Whale of the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation, but without a fully processed visa, Tabin couldn’t collect a paycheck. After six games and nearly two months on the couch, Tabin’s career seemingly came to an end in December 2021.
‘I ended up just going home (to Winnipeg),’ said Tabin in an interview with The Athletic. ‘I didn’t really have that much money to live there for free.’
Tabin’s stop in Connecticut was just one of what’s been a winding path to the 2026 Milan Olympics for the 28-year-old defender. When she hit the ice for the women’s hockey tournament on Saturday, she became the oldest player since 2002 to debut for Team Canada at the Olympics — and one of very few Canadians to crack an Olympic roster with no prior international experience.”
Chris Johnston on Tuesday’s venue:
“It had been a stunning couple of hours in my first trip to Santagiulia. The building and adjacent practice rink were much less finished than I ever dreamed they could be this close to the start of the Olympic tournament, even after all of the alarm bells senior NHL officials have been sounding in recent months.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Olympics, Women's Hockey, Women's Olympic Ice Hockey, How to Watch
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