MILAN – Canada reached the Olympic women’s hockey semifinals with captain Marie-Philip Poulin back in the lineup and making history.
The Canadians pushed past a slow start to take a 5-1 win over Germany in Saturday’s quarterfinal at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena.
Poulin, who sat out two games with a knee injury, scored her 18th careerOlympic goal, which tied the record held by her former teammate Hayley Wickenheiser.
“I never think about that,” the captain said. “You want to win every Olympics. I was lucky enough in my career to play with some pretty amazing players, so pretty thankful for them.”
Poulin scored Canada’s fifth goal in the third period when the five-time Olympian redirected a Sarah Fillier pass into the German goal.
“I remember watching her in the 2010 Olympics and then all the way up, said Canadian defender Claire Thompson. “It’s really special to be able to share the ice with her.
“She’s a huge role model for me when I was growing up and still is to this day, the way she carries herself both on and off the ice.”
Poulin sat out a 5-0 loss to the United States and a 5-0 win over the Finns after she was checked hard into the boards by Kristyna Kaltounkova in the first period of Monday’s 5-1 win over Czechia.
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“Missed her a lot,” Thompson said. “She’s a huge presence both on the ice and in the locker room. We’re just really happy that she was be able to be back with us here tonight.”
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Poulin’s knee was tested within the first five minutes Saturday as she chased down Laura Kluge on a short-handed breakaway, after the German stripped Renata Fast of the puck.
“The first couple of shifts for sure, you want to get your legs under and not overthink things, but happy to how it felt and looking forward to get better day in and day out,” Poulin said.
Thompson, Fillier, Brianne Jenner and Blayre Turnbull also scored for Canada in its first Olympic game against Germany.
Canada’s goalie Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 10 shots for her second win of the tournament.
The German women’s first ever goal against Canada was a short-handed one, as Franziska Feldmeier scored on a breakaway in the third period.
The Germans had been outscored 78-0 in nine world championship meetings.
Goaltender Sandra Abstreiter, who made 38 saves in the loss, is a Montreal Victoire teammate of Poulin and four other Canadian players.
Canada finished second in Group A with a 3-0-0-1 record behind unbeaten United States. Germany (2-1-0-1) ranked second in Group B behind undefeated Sweden.
The United States and Sweden also advanced to Monday’s semifinals with quarterfinal victories on Friday over Italy and Czechia, respectively.
Finland and Switzerland met in a later Saturday quarterfinal, after which the semifinal matchups were to be confirmed.
Canada led 2-0 and 3-0, and outshot the Germans 10-3 and 27-6, at period breaks. But Canadian turnovers gave the Germans some odd-man rushes.
“Puck management. Just because you have time to make a play doesn’t mean you’ve always got to use it,” Canadian head coach Troy Ryan.
“You’ve got to get into the habit of making quick plays, quick decisions so you’re not playing to your opponent a little bit. We’ll bring a puck to a backhand when we should be loading it up on the forehand, so we make more direct plays.
“You saw it on the goal-against on the penalty kill, we’ll just take extra time that is not going to be there in the semis or not going to be there in a gold-medal game.
Two of Canada’s goals came on Abstreiter’s misplays as Thompson’s wobbling shot from the blue-line squeezed between her pads.
Fillier’s sharp-angled shot along the goal-line deflected off the goalie’s stick and in for a power-play goal.
The Germans are coached by Jeff MacLeod of Halifax. German forward Nina Jobst-Smith of Surrey, B.C., plays for the Vancouver Goldeneyes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2026.
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. A previous version stated that Czechia beat Sweden to advance to the semifinals. In fact, Sweden beat Czechia.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
