They sit throughout from or subsequent to one another in dressing rooms now. They cross the puck to one another in high-stakes hockey video games.
A number of Canadian and U.S. girls representing their international locations on the 2026 Olympic Video games have discovered to flip the change from Skilled Girls’s Hockey League teammates to their default state of sworn enemies internationally.
The ladies’s hockey rivalry between Canada and the USA is among the many most heated in all of sport.
The 2 international locations have met in each Olympic ultimate however one, in addition to each world championship ultimate however one. Canada holds a 17-12 file in these video games, however a dozen have gone to extra time or a shootout.
The archrivals conflict Tuesday within the preliminary spherical of the Olympic girls’s hockey event in Milan, Italy.
Canada takes on Czechia on Monday. The Czechs additionally carry a big dose of PWHL gamers, with eight.
The PWHL, in its third season, could have gamers from completely different international locations going face to face towards present and former PWHL teammates for the primary time in an Olympic Video games.
Some shared histories as NCAA teammates however, there was a time when the vast majority of Canadian and U.S. gamers noticed one another solely in worldwide video games. That bred a sure frostiness.
Gamers don’t consider the PWHL has thawed their long-standing duel for hockey supremacy, though a couple of private relationships have modified.
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“There’s simply extra pleasant faces form of in in-between areas, proper?” stated U.S. captain Hilary Knight, a Seattle Torrent teammate of Canadian ahead Julia Gosling. “Earlier than, possibly not even speaking in an elevator or taking a separate elevator. I see Gos … and say ‘hello’, which I in all probability wouldn’t earlier than.
“You simply have various kinds of friendships, however the rivalry’s simply so actual, and also you need it so unhealthy. We deliver out the very best degree of competitors in each other once we throw on our nationwide group jerseys.”
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Individuals and Canadians additionally joined forces within the Skilled Girls’s Hockey Gamers’ Affiliation in 2019 to work collectively for a sustainable league that paid them a residing wage, which finally led to the PWHL.
“The PWHL has modified all the things in our sport. The rivalry has advanced. It actually advanced when there was the PWHPA. The delivery of that was coming along with the Individuals,” stated Canadian ahead Brianne Jenner. “There have been extra sorts of relationships shaped off the ice than maybe in a earlier technology, the place until you had been going to the NCAA with Individuals, you may not see them as folks as a lot as we do now.
“It adjustments the rivalry, however doesn’t dilute it as a result of, man, we’re aggressive. You don’t wish to go house after a Rivalry Sequence or after a world championship and have to return to the locker room because the group that didn’t get the job completed.”
A complete of 13 gamers on the Canada and U.S. Olympic rosters are present PWHL teammates.
Canadian forwards Jenner and Emily Clark and defender Jocelyne Larocque are Ottawa Cost teammates of U.S. defenceman Rory Guilday and goaltender Gwyneth Philips.
Canada’s captain Marie-Philip Poulin, ahead Laura Stacey, defender Erin Ambrose and goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens have American ahead Hayley Scamurra as a Montreal Victoire teammate. Knight and ahead Alex Carpenter share the Torrent roster with Gosling
Just a few extra had been former teammates earlier than shifting to different PWHL golf equipment.
Poulin, for instance, performed a Victoire season alongside U.S. defender Cayla Barnes earlier than the latter joined the Torrent this season.
“You go within the nook, she’s going to push me, she’s going to hit me, she’s going to slash me,” Poulin stated. “I’m going to do the identical.
“When it’s over, we will discuss it, we will chortle about it, however it could not be respectful if we went within the nook figuring out we had been teammates in Montreal.”
Stated Barnes: “The united statesA.-Canada Rivalry, we at all times rise up for it, whether or not you’re teammates again house or not. That is on your nation, that is about pleasure. That is one thing larger for us. So we take a whole lot of pleasure in these rivalries, and it’s simply as large, if not larger, now, particularly with the P-dub.”
Worldwide bragging rights of their respective membership dressing rooms are a brand new gas for the rivalry.
“There’s lots at stake and Olympic Video games even greater,” Canadian ahead Sarah Nurse stated. “If you come again, they usually announce like, ‘oh, these are our bronze (medallists), these are silver, these are gold and when your identify’s not introduced as gold, like, that sucks.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 8, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
