The 2026 Winter Olympics may not officially begin until Friday’s Opening Ceremony, but action has already begun in Italy.
Olympic hockey 2026: Schedule, scores, and results for the women’s tournament
Team USA is among the favorites for gold in women’s ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
And on Thursday February 5, the women’s ice hockey tournament gets into gear.
Canada enters the 2026 Winter Olympics as the defending gold medal winners, having won their fifth title at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. As always, Team USA is a contender for the gold medal, and this veteran squad has a singular goal in mind.
Gold.
“[A] gold medal and gold medal only” is the expectation for Team USA, according to four-time Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield.
Another veteran back for Team USA is captain and five-time Olympian Hilary Knight, who already announced that the 2026 Winter Olympics will be her final Games. She too wants to go out on a high note. “Another gold medal would be awesome. I would like to go out from my Olympic career on a high note, sort of that storybook ending,” Knight said back in October.
While Team USA has 11 players on the roster from the 2022 silver-medal team, and 21 members of the 2025 Women’s World Championship Team, there are also some newcomers to this roster you should know. Chief among them is 21-year-old defender Laila Edwards, who will become the first black woman eer to compete for the U.S. women’s hockey team at the Olympic Games.
In total, ten teams qualified for the women’s hockey tournament, including host nation Italy. The top five teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation rankings — Canada, the United States, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland — were placed into Group A while Italy was placed into Group B along with Japan, France, Sweden, and Germany, teams that reached the Olympics through qualification tournaments.
In the preliminary round each team plays the teams in their group once.
All teams from Group A, as well as the top-three ranked teams from Group B advance to the quarterfinals. After the group stage, a knockout system will be used.
Here is the full schedule and scores for women’s ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics. All games are available on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com
All times Eastern.
February 5
Group B: Sweden 4, Germany 1
Group B: Italy 4, France 1
Group A: United States 5, Czechia 1
Group A: Finland vs. Canada, 3:10 p.m. Postponed
February 6
Group B: Japan 3, France 2
Group A: Switzerland 4, Czechia 3
February 7
Group B: Germany 5, Japan 2
Group B: Sweden 6, Italy 1
Group A: United States 5, Finland 0
Group A: Canada 4, Switzerland 0
February 8
Group B: Sweden 4, France 0
Group A: Czechia 2, Finland 0
February 9
Group B: Italy 3, Japan 2
Group B: Germany 2, France 1
Group A: United States 5, Switzerland 0
Group A: Canada 5, Czechia 1
February 10
Group B: Sweden 4, Japan 0
Group B: Italy 1, Germany 0
Group A: United States 5, Canada 0
Group A: Finland 3, Switzerland 1
February 12
Group A: Finland vs. Canada, 8:30 a.m.
February 13
Quarterfinals: Czechia vs. TBD, 10:40 a.m.
Quarterfinals: United States vs. Italy, 3:10 p.m.
February 14
Quarterfinals: Canada vs. TBD, 10:40 a.m.
Quarterfinals: Finland vs. TBD, 3:10 p.m.
February 16
Semifinals: TBD vs. TBD, 10:40 a.m.
Semifinals: TBD vs. TBD, 3:10 p.m.
February 19
Bronze Medal Game: TBD vs TBD, 8:40 a.m.
Gold Medal Game: TBD vs TBD, 1:10 p.m.
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