MILAN — Every goal still feels special for Hilary Knight, no matter how many USA Hockey’s most decorated woman has scored in her record-setting career.
Saturday night was no different for the 36-year-old, appearing in her U.S. women’s hockey-best fifth Olympics.
With U.S. Vice President JD Vance and family cheering along, Knight scored to tie the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey career goal mark, and the Americans wore down a Finland opponent that spent much of the week dealing with a stomach virus in a 5-0 win at the Milan Cortina Games.
“I just love scoring and just the pure elation of finding the back of the net,” Knight said. “It’s just a little kid moment that when you score it’s pure excitement and it’s fun to celebrate.”
The goal scored 9:17 into the second period that put the U.S. up 4-0 was Knight’s 14th to match the record shared by Natalie Darwitz and Katie King.
“Those are some legendary players, and just to be in the same sentence as them is super special,” said Knight, whose 29 career points in the Winter Games are only three back of matching Jenny Potter on the U.S. list.
Defender Megan Keller had a goal and two assists, while Alex Carpenter, Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy also scored. Aerin Frankel stopped 11 shots for her first shutout in just her second career Olympic game.
The tournament favorite Americans (2-0) improved to 11-0 in Olympic meetings against Finland and had just about everything going in their favor Saturday.
The Finns returned to the ice as a full team for the first time since last being together at practice Tuesday. That night, four players developed symptoms of a norovirus. Two days later, Finland’s 23-player roster was down to eight forwards and two goalies, prompting Olympic officials to postpone the team’s tournament opener against Canada to Feb. 12.
After canceling their morning skate on Saturday, the Finns took the ice six hours later with a full 22-player contingent.
“We know that the U.S. is a really good team. And we knew that it’s going to be a tough battle for us,” Jenni Hiirikoski said. “But I’m proud of how we were battling out there. And it’s something we will keep building.”
The Americans are tough to handle at any time, and it was a lot to ask the Finns to do so given their circumstances.
Finland came out with speed but showed signs of rustiness while struggling to handle the puck. Petra Nieminen had it slide off her stick on a potential break two minutes in. The Finns eventually wore down in managing nine shots through two periods and 11 overall.
Goalie Sanni Ahola stopped 44 shots overall and kept the Finns in the game through a first period in which she stopped 14 of 15 shots. Carpenter was the only one that beat her with a one-timer from the slot for a power-play goal with 4:48 left in the period.
“I got a lot of shots, but I enjoyed every moment. I love getting a lot of shots,” Ahola said.
Heise was impressed by Finland’s resolve.
“For a group that hasn’t really skated together for a few days, I’ll give them credit,” Heise said. “We knew that we had to outlast them.”
The Americans broke open the game with three goals in the second period.
Knight capped the run by being set up to the left of the net. She paused, then spun toward the net and banked a shot in off of Ahola’s blocker.
“She deserves all the success in the world, especially who she is off the ice,” Keller said, noting the entire team was aware of Knight’s milestone. “So we’ll be really excited when she gets that next one.”
In other Group A play, Natalie Spooner, Sarah Fillier and Julia Gosling scored power-play goals, and Daryl Watts also scored in defending Olympic champion Canada’s 4-0 win over Switzerland. Emerance Maschmeyer stopped six shots — including a one-timer from Alina Muller with 8:40 remaining — in Canada’s tournament opener.
Swiss goalie Saskia Maurer finished with 51 saves in an outing Canada sealed with three third-period goals.
Switzerland also had a stomach flu scare following a 4-3 shootout win over Czechia. The Swiss team skipped the opening ceremony and spent Friday night in isolation after one player showed symptoms of the norovirus. The player was cleared on Saturday.
In earlier Group B play, Thea Johansson scored twice and added an assist, and Sweden improved to 2-0 with a 6-1 win over host Italy (1-1).
Also, Laura Kluge had a goal and three assists, Nicola Hadraschek scored twice and added an assist, and Germany (1-1) defeated Japan 5-2.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.