Women’s Olympic Hockey 2026: Prelim Round Recap & Knockout Round Preview

What a fun opening round of this year’s Olympics women’s hockey tournament! We saw some surprises, some standout performances, and a lot of great hockey. Let’s recap everything that happened, and preview where we go from here. 

Group A Final Standings

Group A Takeaways – Team by Team 

There were definitely some surprises for me in Group A; while there weren’t any all-out shockers, there were some games that didn’t go exactly how I thought they would. Let’s look at each team. 

Czechia 
While Czechia ended up in 3^rd place like I expected, their results and path to that weren’t as strong as I expected. As an American rooting for Team USA, Czechia was the team that scared me the most in this tournament, other than Canada of course. Kristýna Kaltounková has been absolutely on fire in the PWHL, and I expected her fire and skill, complemented by a strong group of Czechia players, to be more dominant than they were so far. They have still played well, and I expect that their best hockey is still to come in this tournament, but I expected a stronger showing from the start. 

Switzerland 
The Swiss team had a few surprises up their sleeves, namely the OT win against Czechia. Even though that was their only win of the preliminary round, they still impressed me, with how they played in the Czechia game and in most of their games, keeping things closer than anyone expected in some of those matchups. 

Finland 
I feel for Finland; starting the Olympics by having your first game postponed because so many of your players were sick doesn’t exactly set you up for success for the rest of the tournament. They finally scored some goals and got a good win over the Swiss in their second to last prelim game, but overall, I don’t think this was their best hockey, which is completely understandable due to how many players were sick. I hope that the team is continuing to recover more and more from the Norovirus, and that they will continue to look more and more like the team I expected to see in the Olympics.  

USA & Canada 
I’m going to talk about these two teams jointly, because it’s still everyone’s expectation that they will meet in the gold medal game once again. Both teams still need to get there, and there are never any guarantees, but that is still the trajectory they’re on. 

Team USA did what most everyone expected them to do; they dominated in the prelim round. I definitely didn’t expect the win over Canada to be almost as dominant as the rest of their prelim round wins, and I don’t think you can attribute all of that to Marie-Philip Poulin being out of the lineup.

A lot was made coming into this tournament about the roster decisions Team Canada made, bringing a much older and more veteran team to the games than the other teams (and most notably, compared to Team USA). They had moments in their early games that maybe looked a little less dominant than normal, but overall, their games against Switzerland and Czechia were dominant wins, as expected. The team looked flat and unimpressive against USA, but it’s nowhere near time to count Canada out. A lot of people have pointed to USA’s recent dominance against Canada, and as an American, it’s easy to look at those results and get a big head, but let me make this clear: until the USA beats Canada in a gold medal game, all bets are off. Canada always saves its best hockey for the gold medal game, and I expect this year to be the same. I do think that Team USA is the younger, more dynamic, more exciting team, but the one knock against this team is that they haven’t faced much adversity, cruising through the prelim round as well as the Rivalry Series games beforehand. They will certainly have some closer games in the knockouts, and it’s important that they get in the best possible headspace so that they handle things the right way when they’re locked in tighter games. I still believe they’re the team to beat, but they do need to learn how they will respond in moments of stress. 

Losing Marie-Philip Poulin is obviously the most important storyline for Canada. It sounds like the hope and expectation is that she will be able to be back for upcoming games, so then the biggest question will be how close she is to her normal, amazing self. Captain Clutch at even 50% makes a huge difference for Team Canada. And as a fan of women’s hockey, I want to see each team at full health and strength, and playing their best hockey, and this tournament is nowhere near the same if Marie-Philip Poulin isn’t there or at her best. 

Group B Final Standings 

Group B Takeaways – Team by Team 

Italy 
Obviously, the biggest surprise out of this group is Italy. I will be honest, I was one of the many that counted this team out before the tournament even started. They haven’t been in the Olympics often, and only got in this time because they were the host country. They had never even won a game in the Olympics prior to this. The staff for Team Italy did a great job, and put together a fun and exciting team. Add in the support of home crowds, and they definitely surprised a lot of people, myself included. I expect that their magical run will end in the first knockout game against USA, but still, props to Team Italy’s players and staff for surprising virtually everyone. 

Sweden 
Sweden is still the strongest team in this Group, and I think they’re the only ones with a legitimate chance at making a splash in the knockout rounds. They’re probably too good of a team to be in Group B, so the upcoming change to the format of these tournaments will benefit them in the future. But for this Olympics, they will have a tougher path, but they could make a splash. 

Japan 
Team Japan was a bit of a disappointment for me; it’s possible I had too high of expectations for them (and likely also underestimated the German team), but I fully expected them to make it out of the prelim round. I like the way Japan plays the game and thought they would be more competitive here than they were. 

Germany 
Germany also had a strong prelim round, and Nina Jobst-Smith was great for them. I don’t know if they have enough depth and skill to beat a Group A team, but we will find out soon enough. 

France 
I’m sorry to say that I didn’t see Team France play at all in this tournament. Their program still has a long way to go to be competitive against the other top countries. 

Knockout Round Schedule 

Knockout Round – What to Watch For 

There were surprises in the prelim round; what surprises await us in the knockout round?! The games are only going to increase in intensity, passion, and excitement from here. I can’t wait to see how everything plays out!

Who do you think is going to win the gold? Any upsets you’re hoping or expecting to see? Let me know in the comments below.