Four straight shutouts in a row. Outscoring all five teams 26-1.
What competition? Will Team USA go undefeated?
The American women punch their ticket and advance to the semifinals after serving Italy a merciless beatdown 6-0. Team USA can’t be contained but has contained every team in their path.
Italy tried everything in their power to get a shot off and there was nothing that they could do. USA’s defense smothered their offense only allowing 6 measly shot attempts the entire game. Italy’s goaltender Gabrielle Durante didn’t get a chance to breathe and took a total of 51 shots. Team USA fired 20 shots in the 1st period alone with Megan Keller being the first and only goal scorer in the 1st period.
The 2nd period seems to be Team USA’s favorite time to turn it up, as there were 5 goals scored by 4 different players, again. They are utterly relentless in pursuit of the puck, and unpredictable once in the offensive zone opening up endless possibilities to score. The Americans had the puck in Italy’s zone about 80% of the time. The epitome of puck possession.
Kendall Coyne (2), Laila Edwards (1), Britta Curl-Salemme (1), Hannah Bilka (1), all scored in the 2nd period. At one point in the game Team USA had more goals than Italy had shot attempts. The Americans kept the intimidation factor in play, bullying Italy with several big hits and taking 10 penalties as well.
Veteran Kendall Coyne showed flashes of her younger self scoring back-to-back goals that sparked the team to pick up the pace. Coyne isn’t a stranger to taking over games on the big stage, this being her fourth trip to the Winter Olympics with Team USA.
We might see a rematch of last years gold medal showdown between Team USA & Team Canada and will more than likely be matched up against Team Sweden on Monday.
Dante Robinson | Senior PWHL Analyst for The NSR Network
