First-time Olympian Taylor Heise put it best. The USA-Canada women's hockey rivalry is simply "one for the ages."

The neighboring North American countries and hockey powerhouses go head-to-head at the 2026 Winter Olympics for the first time on Feb. 10 to close out the group stage.

"There’s nothing else like it. We hate each other so much in the most respectful way. And the hockey is just always so good and entertaining. I think it's one of the greatest rivalries in sports," U.S. defender Laila Edwards said back in October.

It's a day that's clearly been circled on the calendar for both teams since way before the tournament schedule was even released last June.

"It's what gets you up in the morning. The 6 a.m. in the middle of June, like, what? What gets you up to go do that? Realizing that you're going to play a game against Canada in the middle of October, November, and you got to be ready to go," Heise told NBC Sports in November.

The early wake up calls must have worked. The U.S. swept Canada in the 2025 Rivalry Series a few months ago and Heise led the Stars and Stripes in points. Now, the two are finally meeting at the Olympics again and the rivalry feels hotter than ever.

"It's intense. It's personal. Whether I play with these people or play against them, they're some of the best," Heise added.

To Heise's point, many of the players that make up the American and Canadian Olympic rosters play together throughout the year in the PWHL. This will be the first Games where the Olympians are also competing full-time at the professional level. Canada's squad is entirely made up of PWHL players, while the U.S. has 16 pros and seven college athletes.

Seattle Torrent:

USA: Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter

Canada: Julia Gosling

Ottawa Charge:

USA: Rory Guilday, Gwyneth Philips

Canada: Jocelyne Larocque, Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark

Montreal Victoire:

USA: Hayley Scamurra

Canada: Kati Tabin, Laura Stacey, Erin Ambrose, Marie-Philip Poulin, Ann-Renee Desbiens

The last time Canada and the U.S. faced off at the Olympics was in the 2022 gold medal game when the Canadian women's hockey team was crowned the Olympic champion for the fifth time. 

Since the Olympic women's hockey tournament debuted in 1998, the Canadians and the Americans have dominated the field. While the U.S. has only won two golds to Canada's five, they've met in the final every Games, except for 2006 when Sweden took silver in Turin.

The U.S. on the other hand, has won the last six games against Canada, dating back to their 2025 World Championship title.

But, history doesn't win games. Players, passion and coaching do. And both teams are currently undefeated in Olympic play and seem to believe they have all the pieces to put the puzzle together and have equally proclaimed gold or bust.

Canada is led by five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist Poulin who is in pursuit of a second-straight Olympic title. And they don't call Poulin "Captain Clutch" for nothing. She scored the game-winning goal in each gold medal game Canada has won.

Poulin left Monday's game against Czechia after taking a big hit into the boards. Canada's coach Troy Ryan said he didn't know the full extent of her injury yet, but that it appeared to be a lower body injury.

"If she's fine, then I would play her, we want her in that game if she's able to play," Ryan said of the matchup with Team USA.

Knight and Poulin have faced each other in every Olympics and the respect between the two is immense. While Knight would love an Olympic gold to complete the storybook ending to her career, she is also well aware of the impact it can have on the future of the game.

"I just understand what a gold medal does for the sport of hockey in the U.S. and all those young girls just looking up to us, just because we won a tournament. If you think about how that works, the visibility is super important," Knight said.

Knight, however, is on the verge of even more history — if she scores against Canada, she'll become the all-time leading U.S. Olympic scorer (15). A goal or an assist and she'll tie the U.S. Olympic career points record (32) owned by retired player Jenny Potter.

The showdown has all of the elements required for an unforgettable game of Olympic hockey, now, it's just about passing the time till puck drop.

Watch USA vs. Canada women's hockey on Feb. 10 at 2:10 pm ET live on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.

Reuters contributed to this article.