Canada Will Play for Gold, Defeats Switzerland 2-1

A tale as old as time, it will once again be Canada and the United States facing off for the gold medal.

Even so, it wasn't the easiest journey for Canada to get to the gold medal game, and it won't be easy to take the top spot either.

Despite being outshot 13-1 by the Canadians after the first period, Switzerland managed to keep the score 0-0, in part due to a fantastic performance from goaltender Andrea Brändli.

Brändli, who is in her third Olympics, missed Switzerland's first game against Team Canada. Since her return, she shutout Finland in the quarter-final game, making 40 saves. And she was at the top of her game against Canada as well, making 44 saves.

It took until the second period for Canada to really start to find their game, and it came in the form of their captain, Marie-Philip Poulin. The five-time Olympian was just one goal away from breaking Hayley Wickenheiser's Olympic scoring record when she got the puck on the point in the Swiss end.

It wasn't the prettiest goal she's scored in her career, but the puck still trickled past Brändli, breaking the record and putting Canada on the board.

No player at the Olympics has scored more goals in women's tournament history than Marie-Philip Poulin. And whoever is coming for that record just had their job made that much harder, as Poulin added a second goal in the same period.

Despite the clear agony that Poulin has been in since tweaking her knee in the preliminary round game against Czechia, she looked like her normally unstoppable self, diving into the slot to put the puck past Brandli.

As she often does at the Olympics, Poulin picked up her team and put them on her back to get them back to the gold medal game.

The second period was the strongest 20 minutes of hockey that Canada played in the semi-final game, outshooting the Swiss 22-3. Yet, they couldn't get another one past Brändli before the period ended.

The ever-tenacious Swiss team wasn't going away despite the 2-0 deficit. Just under 5 minutes into the period, the Swiss pressured Canada's defenders into a turnover, and Rahel Enzler beat Desbiens to put Switzerland within one.

More pressure from the Swiss had the Canadians unable to add a third goal. Even after a late penalty call on the Swiss and an empty net, the score remained 2-1.

Canada moves on to the gold medal game with their smallest margin of victory ever in the semi-finals. Even though Canada will make their eighth straight appearance in the gold medal game at the Olympics, the road to taking home the top prize won't be a smooth one. The 2026 Canadian Olympic team already lost to the US in the preliminary round 5-0.

Canada will need scoring from more than just Poulin in the final game in order to beat a fast and talented US team, who've only surrendered one goal this entire tournament.

Switzerland will face Sweden for bronze. The teams last met in the bronze medal game in 2014, when Switzerland won their only Olympic medal, defeating Sweden 4-3. Alina Müller and Laura Stadler were both playing for Switzerland in that game and will take the ice again on Thursday.

The bronze medal game between Sweden and Switzerland will go at 16:40 local time, 8:40 AM ET on Thursday, February 19. The gold medal game between Canada and the US will follow at 19:10 local time, 1:10 EST.