Canada’s women’s hockey team will face their archrivals, the United States, on Wednesday in the gold-medal final of women’s hockey at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The undefeated Canadian team is seeking to reclaim the gold medal, which it lost to the U.S. at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. The Americans snapped Canada’s 24-game Olympic win streak in a 3-2 victory that was decided by a shootout.
Canada booked its final ticket after crushing Switzerland 10-3 in its semifinal matchup on Monday. The Canadians outshot the Swiss 61-13, and have now scored 54 goals in the tournament so far — an Olympic record.
Team captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice and Claire Thompson had a goal and two assists in the matchup.
“I know when you look at the Olympic scores, you kind of think it has been an easy road for us, but that could not have been any further from the truth,” said forward Sarah Nurse.
“We want to generate a ton of offence but we know we have to clean things up defensively. I know going into the championship (game) we will have to tighten some things up defensively.”
With two goals and 10 assists, Thompson set a tournament record for points by a defender.
“I’m so surprised,” Thompson said. “I never thought I’d be anywhere close to that, but the team’s just been doing so well all tournament. Our offence has been generating a lot and I’m just happy to be here.”
Brianne Jenner, Jamie Lee Rattray, Blayre Turnbull, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark and Emma Maltais also scored for the Canadians, who beat Switzerland 12-1 on the tournament’s opening day, Feb. 2.
The Americans booked their ticket to the final after beating Finland 4-1 on Monday. The United States outshot Finland 42-26 to advance into the gold-medal game.
The U.S. team lost only once in the 2022 tournament — and that came at the hands of Canada, which won 4-2 in group play.
Canada is the most successful Olympic women’s hockey team of all time, playing in every gold-medal match since the introduction of women’s hockey at Nagano 1998.
After losing to the United States in the inaugural contest, Canada won four-straight gold medals before falling to the U.S. again in Pyeongchang.
The U.S. and Canada have faced off in every gold-medal game of women’s hockey with the exception of Torino 2006, when the Canadians played Sweden.
The final game will be played on Wednesday at the Wukesong Sports Centre in Beijing, with puck drop set for 11:10 p.m. ET/8:10 p.m. PT.
— with files from The Canadian Press