Women's hockey gold medal game preview

The wait is finally over. This Thursday, one team will stand atop the world of women’s hockey as Olympic champions, and the matchup is all too familiar.

After a narrow 2-1 victory in the semifinals over Switzerland, the Canadians will face the Juggernaut known as Team USA. The Americans have outscored their opponents 31-1 this Olympics, and haven't allowed a goal since the second period of the opening game. They set an Olympic record shutout streak of 331 minutes, 23 seconds of perfect defense and goaltending.

This upcoming gold medal game against their biggest rivals will be historic, no matter the result. If Team USA wins, they’ll go down as the most dominant Olympic team of all time. If Canada wins, it would be one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.

These teams know each other very well, as they have played each other in exhibition series since the 1990s. Canada leads the all-time series 107-86, but the USA has won the last seven meetings. Together, the two teams have won every women’s hockey gold medal in Olympic history, and will continue that this year.

Back in the group stage, Team USA thrashed Canada 5-0, a result that surprised many who thought the Canadians would be their toughest competition. Another surprise was the performances of the college players on Team USA.

Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy and the Wisconsin duo of Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards are all in the top eight on the scoring leaderboard with seven-plus points each, and are the youngest of those eight top scorers. Harvey leads the tournament in points despite being on defense. Ohio State’s Joy Dunne and Penn State’s Tessa Janecke have five points each as well.

Both teams are also replete with stars from the PWHL, a league that has drastically increased the visibility and popularity of Women’s hockey. One of those stars is Team USA and Boston Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel. In four games, she has saved 67 of 68 shots and posted a 0.25 GAA and .985 SV%.

Canada will be led by PWHL MVPs Marie-Philip Poulin and Natalie Spooner, two of the greatest Olympians in Canadian History. Poulin has personally prevented the Americans from winning gold on three separate occasions. She scored twice in each of the last three gold medal games between the two teams, which Canada won 2-0, 3-2 and 3-2.

On the back end, they have PWHL defenders of the year Renata Fast and Erin Ambrose, as well as 2024-25 PWHL goaltender of the year Ann-Renee Desbiens. However, Desbiens gave up five goals against the U.S. in Canada’s only loss of the tournament. Canada’s backup, Emerance Maschmeyer, has allowed only one goal, but has faced just 23 shots in three games. Although largely untested, her performance would warrant a starting opportunity for the gold medal game.

Will Canada put a stop to perfection and go back-to-back? Will the U.S. solve its Poulin problem and establish its dominance? Who will be crowned the queens of the hockey world? All this and more will be answered on Thursday at 1:10 EST, 7:10 local time, when the puck drops at Santa Giulia Arena in Milan. The game will be broadcast on USA network.

Gabe Eisenberg is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email gfe5080@psu.edu.