The crowd roared and the horns blared as a mix of red, white and blue rushed the ice. On Feb. 19, the women’s USA ice hockey team just won in overtime 2-1 in the Olympic gold medal game against their biggest rival, Team Canada. Just the day before, Switzerland took home the Bronze medal in overtime 2-1 in the game against Sweden.
Throughout the entire women’s ice hockey tournament, Team USA went undefeated against all of their opponents, only letting in two goals throughout the entire tournament: one in the preliminary game against Czechia and one in the gold medal game against Canada. In the final game, forward and Captain Hilary Knight broke the Olympic record for most goals (15+) and total points (33+) by an American player, surpassing both men’s and women’s marks in ice hockey. Ultimately, Megan Keller scored the Gold-winning goal in overtime.
Remarkably, Team Canada only lost one of their seven total games. In the early preliminary rounds, they faced off with Team USA for the first out of two times in the game and lost 5-0. Similarly, Team Canada’s captain, Marie-Philip Poulin, also set the record for scoring in four separate gold medal games (2010, 2014, 2022, 2026) and finished the Olympic tournament with 20 career goals. She also tied the record of most total Olympic medals in women’s hockey with her fifth medal, tying with Canada’s Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser and America’s Hilary Knight.
Despite only winning Bronze, Team Switzerland had a mixed tournament, losing four and winning three of their games. How they stand out from Team Canada and Team USA is that in their first preliminary game, they had a shootout tie-breaker to the game they won against Czechia. Shootouts as a tie-breaker have become less common within the league, with the one happening in the Switzerland vs. Czechia game being the only one to happen during the Olympics. In ice hockey, a shootout is when the game goes into overtime and both teams put up five different shooters in a five-round format.
Overall, the women’s ice hockey tournament went well, with the results garnering positive results from hockey fans and olympics fans alike. Supporting these athletes in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) remains a great idea, even after the Olympics conclude.
