The U.S. women’s hockey team defeated the Czech Republic 4-1 to advance to the semifinals of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games Friday at the Wukesong Sports Center.
Team USA outshot the Czech Republic 59-6, including 18-0 in the first period, which marks the first time that Team USA has held an opponent to zero shots in U.S. Olympic history.
“I think there was a lot of relief, but more so than relief, I felt like it was a reward for the effort we were putting in the entire game and the adjustments we continued to make in our pursuit of scoring goals,” said United States coach Joel Johnson (St. Thomas) in a statement. “It never felt safe until maybe the empty-net goal (by Kendall Coyne Schofield). I don’t know if it was relief as much as it was us trusting our process. We kept going. We had to believe that it was eventually going to go in, and it did.”
The Czech Republic opened the scoring five minutes into the second period, but the Americans rallied with four unanswered goals from Hilary Knight (Wisconsin), Lee Stecklein (Minnesota), Savannah Harmon (Clarkson) and Coyne Schofield (Northeastern).
Maddie Rooney (Minnesota Duluth) earned the win in goals with five saves.
The United States will play an opponent to be determined in the semifinals on Monday, Feb. 14 at 12:10 p.m. local time (11:10 p.m. EST, Sunday).
