The first shootout of Olympic hockey competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games certainly did not disappoint.
The women's Group A matchup between Czechia and Switzerland at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena ended regulation in a 3-3 tie, went to overtime and then culminated in an eight-frame penalty shootout which Switzerland survived triumphantly.
Swiss goaltender Saskia Maurer made three straight shootout stops before teammate Ivana Wey sealed the 4-3 win on the 8th penalty shot.
Switzerland rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to secure the Group A win and their first Olympic victory of the tournament.
Czechia's Kristyna Kaltounkov got on the board first just a minute and a half into regulation. It was the team's second goal of the tournament after losing to Team USA on Thursday 5-1.
Six minutes later Laura Zimmermann answered with an unassisted goal to tie the game up at one a piece.
Czechia's Natalie Mlynkova followed with a goal to give her squad the lead going into the half, 2-1.
After a scoreless second period, Czechia's Tereza Plosova scored with 13:51 to go in the third to take a 3-1 lead.
The Swiss team answered on the power play with 10:27 left to cut Czechia's lead to one and then they completed the comeback after they tied it all up with 2:20 left in the game.
Overtime was scoreless and deadlocked between the two teams and resulted in a thrilling first shootout of the Olympic hockey tournament.
Switzerland topped the Czech woman in the eight-frame shootout for their first Olympic win of 2026.
“We stayed calm, we really believed. That’s how you turn it around. Then in the shootout, the fans got the full experience. It is amazing for women’s hockey," Lara Stadler said after the shootout victory she scored in.
The first matchup of the day was between France and Japan at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena.
The Japanese women snagged the 3-2 win in the country's first women's hockey game of the tournament.
MATCH RESULTS
The first two periods of play were a near stalemate between the French and Japanese women's hockey teams, until Japan got on the board with just 1 minute and 26 seconds left in the second period.
Forward Akane Shiga dropped the puck back to her teammate Rui Ukita who came off Japan's bench with excellent timing, drove to the goal and fired away. The lefty pocketed the puck in the top left corner to give Japan a 1-0 lead.
France answered with 17.7 seconds to go in the 2nd period when Lore Baudrit scored off a rebound that appeared to also bounce off a defender before landing in the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.
Japan scored to go up by one with 3:30 left in game when Makoto Ito sailed the puck up and over the right shoulder of French goalie Alice Philbert to make the score 2-1.
The victory was sealed on an empty net goal from Japan's Suzuka Maeda with just 2:10 left in the game.
France's Gabrielle de Serres scored a last second goal to bring the final score to 3-2.
France dropped its second game in a row after losing to Italy on Thursday, 4-1, on the opening day of the Olympic women's hockey tournament. This is the first time that France has ever qualified to compete in the Games.
"I am so proud to be a part of this group and this team. We fought for it for so long. Today we showed why we are here. We gave it a big fight, it was so close. It is an amazing experience. I hope we can get some points and have some celebrations," Baudrit said after the game.
Women's hockey competition continues on Saturday and can be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.