U.S. women's hockey team continues to separate itself with historic win over Canada 

When the women's hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics began, it seemed like it was going to be the same two-team race it always is between the United States and Canada. It might be turning into a one-team race.

The United States continued to flex its muscles on Tuesday with an emphatic 5-0 win over Canada to wrap up its preliminary round play, earning the No. 1 seed going into the quarterfinals and knockout round. 

United States continues recent dominance over Canada, looks like best team in field

With Tuesday's win, the United States has now won seven consecutive games against Canada, and this might have been the most impressive of them all.

The 5-0 score does not even begin to paint the picture of how dominant and complete this entire performance was. The United States out-shot Canada by a 33-20 margin and looked to be the faster, more skilled team all night.

It is the first time the Canadian women have ever been shut out in Olympic play and is the largest margin of victory for either team in a head-to-head Olympic game. 

While Canada did not have one of its top players on Tuesday — star forward Marie-Philip Poulin — it is unlikely her presence would have done enough to completely narrow the gap. 

That gap might not just be about this particular game, either. It might be a growing gap between the two teams from a big-picture perspective. Winning seven consecutive head-to-head games is no small accomplishment, especially in a rivalry that is as close and evenly- matched as this one has been over the past three decades. 

The United States team is dramatically younger, faster and looks simply to be a more cohesive unit at this point.

They won their four preliminary round games by a 20-1 margin and going into the quarterfinals have recorded three consecutive shutouts. None of this guarantees the U.S. a win in any potential rematch against Canada, but they have to be feeling good about their chances. As long as women's hockey has been in the Olympics, the only teams that have been able to compete with the United States and Canada are each other. Outside of one stunning upset win by Sweden over the United States in 2006, it has always been the United States and Canada playing for gold. 

Nobody else has been on their level. Right now, in this particular tournament, it is starting to look like nobody is on the level the United States is playing at.