Canada and the U.S. are set to battle on Thursday for the Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey for the first time since the launch of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
The high-profile showdown is one that experts say will mark a new chapter for women’s hockey, as fans get the chance to watch the sport on a global scale.
Cheri Bradish, a sport business professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that while “the PWHL has a global footprint, (it) really is a North American property.”
“What will be really interesting to track now is this global stage, where the Olympics will take the PWHL global in a different way.”
Thursday’s gold medal game will mark the seventh time in eight Olympic gold medal matchups that Canada and the U.S. battle each other for the top medal.
Since 1987, the U.S. and Canadian women’s hockey teams have played each other 194 times between the Winter Olympics, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) championships, the Four Nations Cup and the Rivalry Series.
The matchups are often labelled as one of the biggest and fiercest rivalries in sports, with the margin of defeat often only by one goal between each country.
In those seven Olympic gold medal games, Canada’s women’s team has won five of them.
On the other hand, the U.S. has won seven straight games against its neighbours in the north, making Thursday’s game a toss-up for who will be victorious.
And it all comes amid the booming success and momentum of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), now midway through the league’s third season.
The PWHL started the season with its strongest attendance in league history, welcoming more than 154,000 attendees across the first 16 games of the season in January. The PWHL also announced in March 2025 that the league surpassed one million fans in attendance since its launch.
While 61 PWHL athletes flew to Milan to compete in these Olympic Games, there are 39 PWHL players set to compete in this year’s gold-medal game, and an additional six PWHL players in the bronze medal game between Switzerland and Sweden, showcasing the talent of PWHL players.
Laurel Walzak, professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s RTA sport media program, called the building of women’s hockey “promising.”
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“When you see the women’s game, there is so much hope. There is professionalism, there is talent, they are playing more regularly, there’s more money being put into it,” said Walzak.
“All of that put together makes this great recipe of success.”
Laura Misener, director and professor at the school of kinesiology at Western University, believes that the Olympic Games will provide the PWHL an opportunity to grow its international audience.
Currently, the PWHL has 17 players playing from across 10 different countries not in North America.
“The PWHL is wonderful and great; it is still confined to a particular geographical cultural perspective, whereas in the Olympics we see a much broader perspective on that and more global viewership, and I think that’s important to the agenda to the growth of the sport,” she said.
It also provides a visibility boost for athletes and sponsors that can help boost investment in the sport.
“Having athletes that are recognizable in a new marketing cycle, which is the Olympic Games, and having new partners help amplify who they are and what they do,” Bradish said.
Numerous female hockey players have commercials running during Olympic coverage, including Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin, among others, visibility that Bradish credits to the game’s “exponential growth.”
Walzak said the Olympics also give a high-visibility moment for fans to learn about the players.
“It gives them an opportunity to get to know who the athletes are; their personalities and that they are real people, and that’s always been what I would say the women hockey players have always done,” she said.
“They have always been very much involved in the community, always there to sign pucks or T-shirts after games, they have always been accessible to young girls and people who go to their games.”
Jayna Hefford, PWHL executive vice-president of hockey operations, said “the bar has been raised in Milano Cortina with elevated speed, skill and physicality driven by the PWHL and the global growth of the game.”
“We know a lot of new fans may be discovering women’s hockey and falling in love with the sport through the Olympics, and it’s exciting to feed that surging interest with the PWHL, where fans can continue following world-class athletes competing every single day, not just every four years,” said Hefford.
When it comes to the moves on the ice, Bradish said one of the biggest storylines will be Poulin, nicknamed “Captain Clutch,” and how her play will affect Canada’s game.
Misener also cited that since the players on each team “know each other well,” it will be a “unique” game compared to previous matchups.
“It really is a different sport that is being played now because these athletes are known to each other really well, and it will be a very fast-paced game,” she said.
“I think in years past there has been a lot of criticism about the women’s game not being as fast, and that has certainly not been the case this year. It will be an exciting game.”
Overall, Walzak expects to see “national pride like never before.”
Puck drop for Thursday’s gold medal game is set for 1:10 p.m. eastern.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
