USA, Canada on another collision course for gold in women's hockey

The women's hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics is already underway, and it is off to a pretty wild start.

Switzerland already scored one of the first big upsets of the tournament by knocking off Czech Republic, while a Norovirus outbreak already postponed one game (Canada vs. Finland) and has sent Switzerland's team into isolation. 

But if past women's hockey tournaments at the Olympics are any indication of what is ahead, all of these teams are likely just playing for third place, as the United States and Canada seem to be on a collision course for another Gold Medal meeting.

Can anybody challenge the United States or Canada women's hockey teams?

Women's hockey has been in the Winter Olympics since the 1998 Nagano games, and six of the previous seven gold medal games featured the United States playing Canada. 

Canada has won five of them, and the United States has won two.

The only year the gold medal game was not between the United States and Canada was the 2006 games in Turin, when Canada beat Sweden after the latter's stunning upset win against the United States in the semifinal. 

Is there any chance anybody could pull that off this year?

The Czech Republic seemed to be the best potential contender outside of the top two to pull that off, but it has had a brutal start to the tournament in group play. Not only by losing to Switzerland, but they also dropped a 5-1 decision to the United States.

Finland has won Bronze in three of the past four tournaments, including each of the past two, and figures to be a strong contender again. But while Finland has established itself as consistently being one of the best among the second-tier teams, there really has not been much competition with the United States and Canada. 

That likely means it is going to be the two dominant teams ultimately competing for Gold yet again. 

While Canada has had more Olympic success in the head-to-head matchups, the United States is currently on a six-game winning streak against Canada in pre-Olympic meetings.