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The United States women's hockey team has a golden opportunity in front of it.
Thursday in Milan, they'll play the Winter Olympics gold medal game against Canada. And yes, the Canadians are the reigning Olympic champions. But Team USA has a great thing working in its favor.
The magic number: seven.
That's the amount of games in a row that the U.S. has beaten Canada in women's ice hockey.
That includes four games at the tail end of 2025, and the 5-0 drubbing in the preliminary stage of the tournament.
Right now, the United States is skating circles around the Canadians.
That doesn't guarantee anything in a one-game scenario. But it certainly points the trend line in one direction.
Team Canada has almost no youth, while Team USA has tons of it, and that showed in the first meeting.
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As much as one team can possibly skate circles around the other in a matchup of these two powerhouses, that's what happened in the first matchup.
Canada didn't have Marie-Philip Poulin that day, and she'll make a difference, but certainly not a five-goal difference.
The U.S. would have to play much worse. Canada would have to play much better. Right now, the odds of both those things happening don't seem that high.
Team USA hasn't allowed a goal since Feb. 5. Canada barely snuck by Switzerland in the semifinals, 2-1.
It seems like the United States' gold medal to lose. And while that could be a jinx, it really just seems like fact. Team USA has been on a different level than every other team in the field, including Canada, for a while now.
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