MILAN — The public address announcer at the Milano Rho Hockey Arena hadn’t even finished explaining who scored the USA’s third goal of Friday night’s rout of Italy when Laila Edwards cut him off mid-sentence.
The American defender fired a rocket through traffic that beat Italian goalkeeper Gabrielle Durante, added to her team’s lead and had the U.S. goal song “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd blaring over the arena speakers yet again.
“Free Bird” played on a loop during the 6-0 quarterfinal thrashing of eighth-seeded Italy, just as it has throughout this Olympic women’s hockey tournament. It’s reached a point where the U.S. isn’t just playing for an Olympic gold medal anymore. The Americans are two victories away from staking their claim as the best women’s hockey team their country has ever produced.
Outshooting Italy 51-6 was the most savage example yet of the team’s tournament-long dominance. The Americans have steamrolled to the semifinals by outscoring their first five opponents 26-1 and outshooting them 225-72.
The only goal that the U.S. has surrendered was a flukey one in its opening game of group play. Czechia’s Barbora Jurickova emerged from the penalty box at the exact same moment that the U.S. coughed up possession of the puck, producing a breakaway opportunity that resulted in the lone blemish against the Americans’ record.
For decades, Canada has been the Americans’ bitter rival and primary competition, the team that has beaten them in five of seven Olympic gold-medal matches. On Tuesday, in the final game of group play, the U.S. inflicted the worst beatdown on the Canadians in their brilliant Olympic history, a 5-0 shutout that was every bit as lopsided as the score suggests.
That outcome wasn’t an outlier either. The Americans have now won seven straight against their North American rivals. Earlier this winter, they swept four straight games against Canada in the Rivalry Series by a combined score of 24-7.
The Americans have been so impressive that legendary defender Angela Ruggiero earlier this week declared this the best U.S. team of all time. Ruggiero, part of the 1998 U.S. team that won Olympic gold, elaborated when reached Friday by Yahoo Sports.
“They just have tremendous depth to the roster,” Ruggiero said. “Point producers up and down the lineup. Both goalies are superb. Fast. Youth energy coupled with some veterans.”
“I could go on and on,” she added.
Whereas Canada chose to bring back most of its aging stars from its gold-medal run at the 2022 Olympics, the U.S. overhauled its roster and brought aboard a wave of promising newcomers. College stars like Abbey Murphy, Caroline Harvey, Tessa Janecke and Edwards joined longtime stalwarts Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter, among others.
The combination, as Ruggiero noted, has been electric. The newcomers have brought speed, intensity and depth. A dozen different Americans have scored goals so far during the Olympics and several other players have contributed assists.
It’s a testament to Italian goaltender Gabrielle Durante that the host country stayed in striking distance as long as it did Friday night. Durante saved 19 of the 20 shots she faced during the first period, including a diving stick save to rob Murphy of what looked to be a certain goal.
The dam broke less than two minutes into the second period when American forward Kendall Coyne Schofield collected the puck behind the Italy net and seemed to catch Durante unaware. Coyne Schofield snuck the puck through Durante from a tight angle to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead and to unleash an avalanche.
Coyne Schofield struck again three minutes later. Then it was Edwards. Then Britta Curl and Hannah Bilka. By the end of the second period, it was 6-0 and the U.S. could start looking ahead to the semifinals.
