The U.S. women's hockey team sent the home country packing on Friday, after a commanding 6-0 win over Italy in the quarterfinal round of the 2026 Olympic tournament.
With the victory, the Americans officially advance to the semifinal round.
"We want to play whoever's next. We have one goal in mind and that's to bring home a gold medal," U.S. defender Megan Keller said.
Keller got on the board first just over 13 minutes into the game and took the U.S. into the locker room up 1-0 after the first period.
Then, the flood gates opened, as the United States scored five goals in the second.
Four-time Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield led the way with back-to-back goals just over three minutes apart to start the period.
Caroline Harvey racked up her ninth point of the Games and now holds the record for the most points by an American defenseman in a single Olympic tournament.
While she's been an absolute workhorse on the ice, she's enjoying every moment of it. "I'm just having fun out there with my teammates," Harvey said after the game.
Harvey added that when the matchup with Italy got a bit chippy at times, like after Hannah Bilka's goal, the U.S. locked in and stuck to its gameplan. "We've had really good defense and that's what creating our offense," Harvey said.
Five different Americans scored in the game and 13 different U.S. players added points in a gritty, fast-paced offensive explosion. Thus far in the Olympics, the United States has outscored its opponents 26-1.
Illustrating Harvey's earlier point, defenseman Laila Edwards added a goal and an assist against Italy and has six points in the tournament so far. "I'm feeling great, but the job's not finished," Edwards said after the quarterfinal win.
Britta Curl-Salemme also added a sweet wrap-around goal in the victory.
It's important to remember that Italy made history just by advancing to the semifinals. The home country has only competed in the Olympics one other time, when they also received the automatic bid as hosts of the 2006 Games in Turin. 20 years ago, the Italians didn't make it past the group stage.
"Losing sucks, but just being at the Olympics, at the quarterfinals, is a dream come true. There is sadness and disappointment, but at the same time the team doesn’t have any regrets about the way we played," Italian goalie Gabriella Durante said after the game.
The semifinals begin on Feb. 16 and U.S. forward Abbey Murphy said before then the team plans to get some rest.
"Do nothing, chill out, eat some pasta and enjoy time together. We are super excited, but we came here for one thing," Murphy said after the game.
Sweden 2, Czechia 0
Sweden edged Czechia 2-0 to reach the semi-finals of the women's Olympic ice hockey tournament on Friday. Hanna Olsson and Hilda Svensson scored to send Sweden to the semifinals for the first time since 2014.
Reuters contributed to this article.