Blog | Milano Cortina 2026

February 12, 2026 | Grubauer Makes 37 Saves in Win over Denmark, Fisker Molgaard

Young Kraken forward Oscar Fisker Molgaard scored for his native Team Denmark to tie up the opening game for the Danes, beating Germany goaltender and fellow Seattle teammate Philipp Grubauer. Fisker Molgaard took a net-front pass from NHL star Nikolaj Ehlers as he was speeding across Grubauer’s crease, first pushing the puck through the leg pad at the right post, then assuring the puck crossed the goal line, flying by the right goal post. But the popular Kraken goaltender went a clean sheet from there, making 37 saves in a 3-1 win for Germany.

Fisker Molgaard’s tally was the lone goal for Denmark, which fell behind 23 seconds into the game when German-born NHL superstar Leon Draisaitl ripped a shot past NHL goaltender Fredrik Andersen. The two squads were knotted at 1-1 first intermission via Molgaard hitting paydirt in the game’s 14^th minute as Grubauer made some big stops to keep the game even.

Grubauer faced 20 total shots in the final 40 minutes, turning away a game-high seven shots on goal by ex-Kraken Oliver Bjorkstrand and coming up with a huge save on Ehlers late-game that allowed German fans to avoid too much stress as the clock wound down. With elite scorers like Draisaitl and Stutzle, plus gifted young defenseman Moritz Seider and Grubauer continuing a bounce-back season, many experts project Germany to be a medal contender.

Denmark outshot the Germans 16 to 11 in the middle period with Grubauer playing a calm, tactical game to keep his net clear. Ottawa Senators star Tim Stutzle helped out Grubauer by scoring a pair of goals in the second stanza (the insurance deflecting off a Danish D-man’s shin guard) to establish a two-goal lead by mid-period that Grubauer made sure to keep safe. Stutzle’s second goal was scored on a power play when Fisker Molgaard was whistled off for holding Draisaitl behind the Danish net after an extended puck battle that was impressive for one of Seattle’s most promising prospects.

Despite the loss, Denmark and Fisker Molgaard are guaranteed to play four games against the “best on best” competition. As Coachell Valley Firebirds head coach Derek Laxdal was meeting with his coaches before Thursday’s practice to resume the American Hockey League season, he took a minute to discuss how the Olympic tournament would benefit Molgaard.

“He will be an even better two-way player for us after the four games,” said Laxdal about his centerman, who has seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points in 36 games during his AHL rookie season. “He will be going up against tough opponents each game [including Team USA on Saturday, 12:10 p.m.].”

February 12, 2026 | Gosling back on the scoresheet, CAN dominates FIN, 5-0, to wrap up preliminary play

At long last, Seattle Torrent forward Julia Gosling & Team Canada wrapped up the preliminary round, skating to a decisive 5-0 victory over Finland to finish with a 3-0-0-1 record in Group A.

Gosling, still on Canada’s fourth line alongside Kristin O’Neill and Jenn Gardiner, continued to have an impact on the ice and on the scoresheet, finishing the day with two assists. In the dying minutes of the first period, Gosling fed teammate Gardiner for her first Olympic goal, then found her second point of the night on O’Neill’s tally in the middle of the second frame to put the Canadians up 3-0. When all was said and done, the Canadians flipped the script from their previous match-up, handily taking down a stunned Finnish squad by a final score of 5-0.

With the gamesheet submitted, the preliminary round for the women’s tournament has ended, with USA leading the pack and Team Canada close behind. Aneta Tejralová and Czechia, whose tournament started off with back-to-back losses, finished third in Group A with a 1-0-1-2 record.

The quarterfinals get underway on Friday, with Czechia squaring off against Sweden at 7:40 am PT. Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes, and the rest of Team USA will match up against host country Italy at 12:10pm PT, followed by Gosling and the Canadians taking on Germany at 7:40 am PT on Saturday.

February 11, 2026 | Slovakia Upsets Finland, Tolvanen, Kakko in Opening Game

Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen scored his native Finland’s first goal at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 to tie the opening matchup of the men’s hockey tournament at 1-1 against Slovakia. The problem is, the second-period score turned out to be favored Finland’s only goal. Slovakia poured in three third-period goals for a 4-1 upset.

Tolvanen, Kraken teammate and countryman Kaapo Kakko, and their squad now face Sweden on Friday. It is now a must-win game for Finland to keep its hopes of a bye into the quarterfinals alive, which start Feb. 18.

The 12 teams in the men’s tournament are divvied up into three groups for round-robin play. Finland is in Group B with Slovakia, Sweden, and host nation Italy (with Kraken VP and assistant GM Ricky Olczyk on the Italian leadership group). After each group plays three round-robin games, four teams receive byes to the quarterfinal knockout round. Each group's winners get a free pass along with the top second-place team. Standings points are earned with three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime or shootout win, and one for an overtime or shootout defeat. That second-place bye now requires Finland to win out in regulation against Sweden and Italy, then hope for help to come out as the top group runner-up with eyes on all three groups in round robin play.

Otherwise, Finland joins the remaining eight teams (including two second-place teams along with all third- and fourth-place squads) advancing to the so-called "playoff round” Feb.16. Basically, teams will be ranked from No. 5 to No. 12 and square off higher-ranked against lower-ranked. Kraken fans expected Finland, with Tolvanen and Kakko, to get a bye, while Philipp Grubauer and Germany, along with Oscar Fisker Molgaard and Denmark, would not. Now, experts would project that all four of the Kraken could well be participating in the “playoffs” to get to the quarterfinal round.

But as Game 1 proves, upsets are both possible and plausible. Slovakia entered Wednesday’s Olympic opener with seven NHL players compared to 24 for the Finns. Two young stars for Slovakia handled the key scoring for their country, with Montreal forward Juraj Slafkovsky tallying twice and St. Louis forward Dalibor Dvorsky scoring the game-winner seven-plus minutes into the third period. Slovakia scored a power-play goal on a long snapper through traffic three minutes later to make it 3-1. Slafkovsky scored seven goals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as a 17-year-old and now has nine goals in eight Olympic games.

Finland had its chances throughout the game with both Kakko (including a Grade-A opportunity early) and Tolvanen getting ample ice time while making timely plays. The Finns had outshot Slovakia by a two-to-one ratio after two periods with only a 1-1 tie to show for it.

That’s because Slovakia goaltender Samuel Hlavaj made 38 saves in the victory, many of them spectacular and acrobatic. It was basically a goalie steal by Hlavaj, a 24-year-old Minnesota Wild prospect who plays for the American Hockey League affiliate Iowa Wild.

February 10, 2026 | Bilka’s 2-goal efforts lead undefeated USA to shutout of CAN

In what many consider to be the marquee match-up of the preliminary round — and a preview of the gold medal game — Americans Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka, and Cayla Barnes went head-to-head against Julia Gosling and Team Canada for the first time since Team USA swept Canada in four Rivalry Series contests this fall, handily taking down their rivals from up north by a final score of 5-0.

The biggest story going into today’s match-up was the loss of Canadian and Montréal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury following a hit from Kristýna Kaltounková during yesterday’s match-up with Czechia.

Team USA opened the game with a goal just under four minutes into the first period, with Torrent captain Knight winning a draw and feeding the puck to Haley Winn, who found Caroline Harvey for the goal. With the assist, Knight tied Jenny Potter for the most career points in American Olympic history (32).

Torrent forward Hannah Bilka also got in on the action with her second and third goals of the tournament. Her first tally came in the final minutes of the opening frame, with Bilka finding the back of the net off an unbelievable no-look pass from 2026 PWHL Draft eligible forward Abbey Murphy. Bilka scored her second goal of the game off another feed from Murphy, who skated through the zone and passed to Bilka at the top of the circle. From the slot, the Texas-born Torrent forward beat Canadian netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens to put the Americans up 4-0.

Bilka, acquired by Seattle with the third overall selection in the 2025 PWHL Expansion Draft, was bumped to the second line ahead of today’s match-up to skate alongside Murphy and Taylor Heise. The lineup change clearly paid off for Team USA head coach John Wroblewski, who is hunting for his first Olympic gold at the helm of the American women’s national team.

The Americans’ final tally to seal the 5-0 win came from 2026 PWHL Draft eligible defender Laila Edwards, a phenom out of the University of Wisconsin who has caught attention for her size and versatility at both forward and defense. With her appointment to the roster back in December, Edwards became the first Black woman to represent Team USA in women’s ice hockey — and with her goal today, became the first Black woman to score a goal for the American Olympic squad. Should Edwards declare for this summer’s Draft, she, like teammate Harvey, is projected to go in the first round and would be a valuable pick-up for a Torrent squad sitting out of playoff contention coming into the international break.

At the opposite end of the ice, Torrent forward Julia Gosling was held off the scoresheet for the first time tonight in Milan. The Canadians will look to regroup ahead of their final preliminary match-up against Finland on Thursday, ahead of the quarterfinals.

With today’s 5-0 win, the Americans have locked up the top seed in Group A and will not see the ice again until the knock-out round begins on Friday. Aneta Tejralová and Team Czechia, who wrapped up their preliminary play yesterday, await Thursday’s results of CAN-FIN to determine the final seeding for the next round.

February 9, 2026 | Gosling’s 2-goal effort leads CAN to 5-1 win over CZE, USA shuts out SUI to stay undefeated ahead of Tuesday’s rivalry rematch

The puck dropped first for Americans Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka, and Cayla Barnes, who skated to a 5-0 win over Switzerland in their third match-up of the tournament, while Julia Gosling and Team Canada handily took down Czechia, 5-1, with two goals from Gosling.

Despite a steady scoring pace in the first and second period, which saw captain Knight assist on Haley Winn’s opening tally, it took until the beginning of the third frame for a Torrent skater to find the back of the net — the longest any of the four skaters have been held off the board in three games so far. Forward Bilka, the Torrent’s second selection in the 2025 PWHL Expansion Draft, scored her first Olympic goal to put the Americans up by three, followed by a third period goal by Carpenter.

The third period seemed to come up all Seattle, with a pass from Knight in the neutral zone springing long-time teammate Carpenter on a breakaway that she took all the way to the net for her third goal in as many games. With her goal today, Carpenter ties American legend Jenny Potter for fourth all-time in Olympic goals scored by Americans (11). Knight finished the day with two assists and Carpenter with a goal and an assist.

Across the city, a busy opening frame for the Canadians saw four goals on the scoresheet, including two in 39 seconds that resulted in Czechia swapping netminders with five minutes to play in the first frame. Torrent forward Gosling, who led Seattle in goals (6) and in points (12) ahead of the international break, tallied two power play goals en route to the 5-1 win.

Gosling, who started the tournament on the wing of captain Marie-Philip Poulin, was bumped to the fourth line alongside Kristin O’Neill and Jenn Gardiner (both of whom are also making their Olympic debuts). Despite the shuffle, Gosling was clearly still clicking with the second power play unit, with all three of her tallies this tournament coming with the advantage.

Opposite Canada, Aneta Tejralová and Team Czechia suffered their third loss of the tournament. Despite a less-than-promising preliminary round record of 1-0-1-2 for the Czechs, who have seen immense growth and success over the past several seasons of international competition (including their first two trips to the podium at the World Championships in 2022 and 2023), they are guaranteed a trip to the quarterfinals as part of their membership in Group A.

A fun note for Torrent fans tuning in from home: all Seattle skaters found the scoresheet in Milan today, with the only players left off the scoresheet being defenders Cayla Barnes (USA) and Tejralová (CZE).

Both the Americans and Canadians are back in action on Tuesday, skating opposite each other in what many consider the annual gold-medal preview, at 11:10 am. Tejralová and Czechia await the results of the remaining preliminary-round matches to determine their opponent for the quarterfinals.

February 8, 2026 | Tejralova, CZE skate to first win of tournament with 2-0 victory over winless FIN

The only Torrent skater in action today, defender Aneta Tejralová and Team Czechia bounced back after an inauspicious start to their tournament, toppling traditional powerhouse Finland by a final score of 2-0. Finland, still recovering from having a number of the team sidelined due to illness, has fallen to 0-2 in the preliminary round following yesterday’s shutout defeat at the hands of the United States.

Tejralová finished second amongst Czech skaters in time on ice with 23:27 logged over 28 shifts.

There will be no rest for the Czechs, who are right back into the fray Monday against Canada. The puck drops at 12:10 pm PT. The Americans, who enjoyed a Sunday off, will square off across the ice against Switzerland at 11:10 am PT in hopes of preserving their undefeated streak through the preliminary round.

February 7, 2026 | Knight makes history, USA stays undefeated; Gosling scores first Olympic goal in CAN opening win

Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, and Cayla Barnes saw the first action of the day for the Torrent skaters in Milan, downing Finland 5-0 to advance to 2-0-0-0 in the preliminary round.

Carpenter once again opened the scoring for Team USA, getting onto the scoresheet in the first period with her second goal of the tournament just 7 seconds into the power play after Finland's Susanna Tapani sat for hooking. Carpenter’s goal was the difference-maker headed into the second frame, but the narrow margin wouldn’t last long.

Two quick goals by Americans Taylor Heise and Megan Keller opened the second period and extended the U.S. lead to 3, before Torrent & Team USA captain Knight continued to do what she does best: make history. With Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen in the box for holding, Laila Edwards fed Knight a net-front pass, and the 36-year-old from Sun Valley, Idaho, found the back of the net for her second goal of the tournament and 14th career Olympic tally. Knight finished the game tied with Team USA legends Natalie Darwitz and Katie King for the all-time American Olympic goals record.

In the evening game, Julia Gosling and Team Canada earned a dominant 4-0 win over Switzerland for the group’s first match of the tournament (their original first game, scheduled for Thursday vs. Finland, was postponed).

Gosling is the Torrent’s lone representative on the Canadian roster but is no stranger to the world stage. A late cut from the 2022 Olympic squad, Gosling has earned a gold and silver medal at the 2024 & 2025 World Championships, respectively, and has been in the Canadian national team development pipeline since 2018. A fun note: when Gosling suited up for the Canadian U-18 team in 2018 and 2019, she did so alongside future Torrent teammates Lexie Adzija (2018) and Danielle Serdachny and Megan Carter (2019).

Back to Milan: Despite generating a high shot volume in the first period, the Canadians didn’t find the net until the middle of the second frame when Natalie Spooner scored on the power play. Late in the third, now with a 2-goal cushion, a tripping call on Switzerland’s Nicole Vallario sent Canada to the power play. A net-front scramble ensued, and Gosling cleaned up in front for her first goal of the tournament and first career Olympic marker.

Knight, Carpenter, Bilka, Barnes, and the rest of Team USA will be back in action on Monday when they take on Switzerland at 11:10 am PT, followed by Gosling and Team Canada’s match-up with Czechia at 12:10 pm PT.

February 6, 2026 | Torrent's Tejralová leads CZE in time on ice, falls to SUI in shootout

Aneta Tejralová was the lone Torrent player to see game action on Day 2 of the preliminary round, with her native Czechia falling to Switzerland in the shootout, 4-3. Tejralová led Czech skaters in time on ice (21:59) through 65 minutes of play.

Still winless in Group A, Czechia will look to gain some ground back on Sunday in their next match-up when the puck drops at 12:10 pm vs. Finland. Provided the Finns can ice a healthy lineup as the group recovers from illness, Czechia will need both points from this upcoming contest to set the tone for the rest of the tournament.

February 5, 2026 | Torrent's Carpenter, Knight, Bilka power USA in Milano Cortina Opener

Torrent forwards Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, and Hannah Bilka and defenders Cayla Barnes and Aneta Tejralová took the ice for their first preliminary match-up of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, with Carpenter, Knight, and the Americans claiming a 5-1 victory over Tejralová’s Team Czechia.

The first goal for Team USA came off the stick of alternate captain Alex Carpenter, who opened her third Olympic tournament today in Milan. Long-time American stalwart and Torrent captain Hilary Knight tallied the game’s fifth goal off a neutral zone feed from Carpenter and went top shelf to put the Americans up 4-1 over Czechia. Torrent rookie Hannah Bilka tallied her first Olympic point on Knight’s goal.

Knight’s third-period tally marks the first time three PWHL teammates have combined for a goal at any Olympic Games.

Prior to being reunited on a line in the Torrent’s top-6, Carpenter and Knight have competed alongside each other for Team USA since the 2013 Women’s World Championship in Ottawa, where the pair claimed their first of seven World Championship gold medals together.

Tejralová saw nearly 18 minutes of ice time in her country’s opening round defeat. The 30-year-old defender from Praha, Czechia, is skating in just her second Olympic tournament but has been part of the Czech national team program since age 15.

Torrent forward Julia Gosling was slated to make her Olympic debut this afternoon for Team Canada opposite Finland, but an illness among the Finnish squad caused the match-up’s postponement. Gosling and the Canadians will stay rested until Saturday, when they’ll face off against Switzerland at 12:10 pm PT.

Tejralová and Czechia will be back in action Friday to take on Switzerland at 5:40 am PT. Barring no further health complications or postponements, Knight, Carpenter, and Team USA will square off against Finland on Saturday at 7:40 am PT.