The Medal Round of the Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will continue Monday with 45 of the PWHL’s 61 Olympians on the ice for the Semifinals.
MONDAY’S SEMIFINAL PREVIEW
Both matchups mirror the semifinals played on Feb. 17, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.
10:40 A.M. ET: UNITED STATES (A1) VS. SWEDEN (B1)
The first semifinal is a battle between the tournament’s two unbeaten teams. The U.S. scored five goals in each of their four preliminary round games before putting up six goals against Italy in the quarterfinals. The Americans boast nine of the tournament’s 17 players with five or more points, including Seattle’s Alex Carpenter (3G, 3A), Hannah Bilka (4G, 1A) and captain Hilary Knight (2G, 3A), Boston captain Megan Keller (2G, 4A) and Minnesota’s Britta Curl-Salemme (1G, 4A). The U.S. has produced four straight shutout wins, backed by Boston’s Aerin Frankel and Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips, who have produced a record-setting shutout streak of 271:23 dating back to their opening game against Czechia. Sweden cruised through Group B before upsetting the Czechs with a 2-0 shutout to launch Friday’s quarterfinals. Toronto’s Sara Hjalmarsson (2G, 3A) is fourth in team scoring with five points in five games, followed closely by Montréal’s Lina Ljungblom with two goals and three points. The countries have met four times in the Olympic semifinals, with the Swedes pulling off arguably the greatest upset in Olympic women’s hockey history against the Americans when the tournament was last hosted in Italy back in 2006, winning 3-2 in a shootout. The U.S. won each of the other three semifinal matchups, 4-0 in Salt Lake City 2002, 9-1 in Vancouver 2010 and 6-1 in Sochi 2014, however none of those victories paved the way to a gold medal triumph.
3:10 P.M. ET: CANADA (A2) VS. SWITZERLAND (A5)
The second semifinal features a rematch of last Saturday’s preliminary round where Canada took the ice for the first time in a 4-0 victory, outshooting Switzerland 55-6. New York’s Sarah Fillier (3G, 3A) and Toronto’s Daryl Watts (2G, 4A) share the team lead with six points and tallied a goal and an assist apiece in that contest. Seattle’s Julia Gosling (3G, 2A) scored the first of her tournament-leading three power play goals against the Swiss, and Canada’s top scoring defender, Claire Thompson (1G, 3A) of Vancouver, also the top scoring blue liner in Olympic history, picked up two assists. Canada got a boost in their 5-1 quarterfinal win over Germany with the return of Montréal captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who made history with her 18th career Olympic goal to tie the all-time record. Boston’s Alina Müller also made Olympic history in Saturday’s quarterfinals, becoming just the sixth woman to score 15 career goals and moved up to eighth on the all-time scoring list with 27 points in Switzerland’s 1-0 triumph over Finland. This will be the third semifinal meeting between the countries on the Olympic stage, with Canada winning 3-1 in Sochi 2014, and 10-3 in Beijing 2022, before going on to win gold in both tournaments. Canada has never lost to Switzerland in 19 games historically at the Olympics and Women’s Worlds, outscoring them 133-9.
CAPTAINS ON THE CUSP OF HISTORY
- Knight (14G, 18A) is one goal away from setting a new U.S. Olympic record currently shared with Natalie Darwitz and Kathryn King (15G each), and one point away from setting a new U.S. Olympic record currently shared with Jenny Potter (11G, 21A).
- Poulin (18G) is one goal away from setting a new all-time Olympic record currently shared with fellow Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser.
