Hannah Bilka scored two goals and Caroline Harvey and Abbey Murphy each totaled three points, fueling the United States to a 5-0 rout of rival Canada on Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Harvey scored a goal and set up two others for the second straight game and Murphy notched three assists for the Americans (4-0-0). It was the first time the Canadian women’s hockey team has been shut out during Olympic play.
The U.S. outscored the Canadians by a 24-7 margin in a four-game sweep of a Rivalry Series in November and December.
Following their third straight 5-0 shutout, the Americans completed the preliminary round by outscoring the Group A competition 20-1.
Kirsten Simms and Laila Edwards also scored and Aerin Frankel made 20 saves for the U.S.
Captain Hilary Knight assisted Harvey’s goal to increase her Olympic point total to 32, tying her with Jenny Potter for the most in U.S. women’s Olympic hockey history.
Canada (2-1-0) struggled to ignite its offense while playing without captain Marie-Philip Poulin (lower body).
Ann-Renee Desbiens yielded five goals on 27 shots before being relieved by Emerance Maschmeyer (six saves) for Canada.
Harvey wired a sharp wrist shot from the slot to open the scoring at 3:45 of the first period.
She then contributed to the Americans’ second goal with 2:42 left in the first.
Although Harvey failed to connect on a breakout pass, Murphy hustled for the puck and delivered a blind backhanded feed from below the goal line to an unmarked Bilka for an easy convert in front.
Simms converted following a scrum in front at 1:18 of the second, and Bilka scored from the left circle at the 13-minute mark of that period. Edwards unleashed a blistering one-timer to cap the scoring at 11:53 of the third period.
–Field Level Media
