Frankel makes 21 saves, US beats Sweden 5-0 to reach Olympic women's hockey final

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MILAN (AP) — Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots for her third shutout of the Olympic women’s hockey tournament and the favored United States advanced to the gold medal game by defeating Sweden 5-0 at the Milan Cortina Games on Monday.

Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra scored on consecutive shots over a 2:47 span late in the second period to blow the game open and put the Americans up 5-0. Cayla Barnes opened the scoring and Taylor Heise also scored.

The Americans continued their roll through the tournament by improving to 6-0, and outscoring their opponents by a combined 31-1. The U.S. has yet to trail or be tied after 0-0, and in position to become the third women’s team to do so over the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010.

The U.S. also extended its shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, going back to Czechia's Barbora Jurickova beating Frankel on a breakaway in the second period of a tournament-opening 5-1 win.

“I think we’re looking incredible. The whole tournament we’ve really been consistent,” Scamurra said. “I don’t even think we’re at the peak, but I think our peak is getting that gold medal in hand for sure.”

The win over Sweden sets up what could well be a seventh gold-medal showdown against Canada on Thursday. The defending Olympic champion Canadians play Switzerland in the day’s other semifinal game.

The U.S. already beat Canada 5-0 in a preliminary round game last week. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, with Canada winning the other five tournaments.

The U.S. has had the recent edge in the rivalry between the sport's two global powers in having won seven straight dating to beating Canada twice at the world championships in April.

“Nothing matters. It's the gold medal game,” Heise said of a potential rematch against Canada. “Obviously, I’m going to say we’ve done great and we’ve had great success. You want to take that confidence and motivation, but you want to move forward. We’re going to look for us and we’re going do what we need to do on Thursday and hopefully come on top.”

Sweden will play for bronze on Thursday in an effort to medal for the third time in team history, and first since winning silver at the 2006 Turin Games after upsetting the U.S. in the semifinals.

“We’re not done yet. We’re going for the bronze now,” Sweden forward Nicole Hall said.

Ebba Svensson Traff stopped 19 of 23 shots before she was pulled after Coyne Schofield tipped in Laila Edwards' shot from the blue line with 3:50 left in the second period.

Emma Soderberg took over in goal, and was beaten by Scamurra, who tapped in Britta Curl-Salemme’s centering pass 1:49 later. Soderberg finished with 10 saves.

Among those in attendance was former NFL center Jason Kelce, who was shown on the scoreboard applauding the goal initially credited to Edwards. Kelce is from Edwards' hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and he and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, contributed to a GoFundMe drive to help pay for Edwards' family to attend the Milan Cortina Games.

“That was so cool,” Edwards said of being informed of Kelce's presence.

Sweden enjoyed a breakthrough this year with a young, talented group that features seven players competing in the U.S. college ranks. Sweden went 4-0 to win Group B, and then upset Czechia 2-0 in the in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the game close through 35 minutes, the Americans eventually wore them down.

“Maybe today we needed a plexiglass in front of the net to stay in the game,” coach Ulf Lundberg said, noting his team kept the U.S. mostly at bay with the exception of the late second-period collapse. “I’m proud of the work ethic and I’m proud of the way we could do the third period. So we have a lot of habits to take with us to the bronze medal game.”

And the U.S certainly didn’t resemble a team that didn’t want to play Sweden, as Lundberg suggested after the Swedes beat Czechia in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the U.S. mostly to the perimeter in the opening period, they were still outshot 13-2.

Barnes scored with a snap shot from the top of the right circle and beat Svensson Traff high on the short side. Barnes’ goal was her first point of the tournament, leaving seventh defender Rory Guilday as the lone American skater to not yet register a point through six games.

Heise made it 2-0 at the 9:08 mark of the second period by one-timing in Hannah Bilka’s backhand pass through the middle. Svensson Traff got her glove on the shot, but the puck deflected across her body and into the net off the inside of her stick.

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AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics