A Historic Olympic Run

This year’s Olympics have been one to watch from history making moments on Day 1 to a Semi-Finals filled with history. With the medal games around the corner, here’s all the history-making moments from this years tournament that have got us here. 

Starting on Day 1 with the hosts, Italy won their first-ever women’s hockey game at the Olympics in front of their home crowd. Entering the tournament Italy was a major underdog, not on anyone’s radar having not won a single Olympic game but that conversation quickly changed after their big 4-1 win opening day.  

Italy continued this momentum through the preliminary round securing the third overall spot in Group B to make their first ever Quarterfinal. Well their time in the playoff rounds may have been short; they continued their strong performance becoming the first team in this year's tournament to shut the USA out of a period, holding them to no goals in the third period. 

Also making history in the preliminary round was Alina Müller who became the all-time Olympic goal leader for the Swiss National Team, reaching 14 goals. Müller has been incredible in the tournament scoring three of Switzerland’s 7 goals, well assisting on two others. She scored the lone goal for Switzerland in the Quarterfinal round to bring them to the Semi-Finals. 

Natálie Mlýnková also made history as the all-time Olympic goal leader for Czechia, with 4 goals. The Montreal Victoire rookie was a major highlight for the Czech team in this year’s tournament and this is just the start of her young career. Expect to see more of her on the National stage and in the PWHL. 

Moving to the history filled Semi-Finals, Marie-Philip Poulin scored her 19th and 20th Olympic goal to become Canada’s lone all-time leading goal scorer. The previous record was set by Hayley Wickenheiser who had 18 Olympic goals. 

But that wasn’t all for Canada, as Ann-Renée Desbiens now has the most wins in Canadian women’s hockey history, in net with 9. On top of that Claire Thompson became the all-time leading scorer among defenders at the Olympics with 17 points. This is just Thompson’s second Olympic Games in her young career, she is expected to remain a staple for Canada’s defence. 

Also making history in the Semi-Finals was Aerin Frankel who became the first goaltender to record 3 shutouts in a Single Olympic tournament. Adding to this accomplishment the USA now holds the longest shutout streak in Olympics ice hockey history now sitting at 331 minutes and 23 seconds, with all three goaltenders, Aerin Frankel, Gwyneth Philips and Ava McNaughton contributing to the shutout streak. 

The USA’s win to advance to the gold medal game guaranteed Hilary Knight’s record-tying 5th Olympic medal, becoming just the third player in Olympic ice hockey to win 5 medals of any kind. Knight has already announced this will be her final Olympic Games; the USA powerhouse still has one more record within reach, needing only 1 goal to become the all-time Olympic goal leader for the USA. 

With a historic run in the women’s tournament and the growth of underdog teams like Italy and Germany, the future of women’s hockey is bright as the game continues to grow worldwide.