MILAN — Team USA continued its impressive run towards a gold medal in women’s hockey with another convincing victory on Friday night.
They overwhelmed Italy in the quarterfinals, winning 6-0 in a match that was largely one-sided, not leaving much doubt about the outcome.
This performance echoed their dominant showing in the four qualifying games they played.
As Ilia Marin pointed out during the match, though, there’s always an element of uncertainty in sports.
Unless Canada, which was sidelined from facing Team USA during the qualifiers due to the absence of star player Marie-Philippe Poulin because of an injury, can level the playing field in a potential rematch, it’s tough to picture Team USA even facing a significant challenge.
It seems the attitude surrounding the U.S. women’s hockey team mirrors that of the U.S. women’s basketball team at the summer Olympics.
The semifinal matchup for Team USA is set against Sweden, provided Germany doesn’t upset Canada on Friday.
Throughout their five games, Team USA has outscored opponents 26-1.
Remarkably, they’ve not allowed a goal in over 271 minutes, achieving four consecutive shutouts.
The Americans maintained strong puck possession on Friday.
Every line was effective; their overall play was impressive, particularly in retrieving the puck and battling for positions along the boards.
They allowed only two shots each in the first two periods, ultimately leading 6-0.
In the third, they let in two more shots.
It was arguably one of the most polished performances I’ve seen.
Italian goalie Gabriela Durante did her best to keep her team’s hopes alive in the first period.
Team USA went ahead 1-0 when Megan Keller scored with a one-timer at 13:31, although it could have easily been a larger margin by the end of the period.
The score remained close, as Durante made a remarkable stick save against Abby Murphy just before the period ended.
However, that didn’t last long. The U.S. struck three times in just four minutes in the second period, with Kendall Coyne Schofield netting two goals and Laila Edwards converting a late penalty.
Edwards scored soon after Italy’s coach Eric Bouchard called a timeout in an attempt to steady his team.
Unfortunately for Italy, the timeout didn’t achieve its goal. Bouchard was visibly frustrated, slamming the bench door and directing his anger towards the referee near the game’s end after Britta Carl Salemme scored shorthanded, making it 5-0.
By the end of the match, the demeanor on both benches mirrored the one-sided nature of the game.
After Hannah Birka scored the sixth goal for the Americans, Murphy and Franziska Stocker got involved in a scuffle, which followed a dispute between U.S. coach John Wroblewski and an Italian assistant coach.
At that stage, the game had long ceased to be competitive, yet the real challenges of the Olympics are still on the horizon.
