The United States, re-tooled and re-booted from their Olympic loss four years ago, skated to a convincing 5-0 win over Canada tonight. They looked faster and more skilled, more creative and more determined. In truth, the game wasn’t close.

The win gives the U.S. first place in Group A while Canada's final position--second or third--will be decided after their delayed game against Finland on Thursday.

Aerin Frankel stopped 20 shots for the shutout while Hannah Bilka had two goals and Abbey Murphy three assists.

"Our coaches always say, never too high, never too low," said forward Taylor Heise. "They're going to hate us now more than they already do, if we end up meeting them again. But it's the confidence in our group that we can take. We're super excited. They're great competitors. We play with and against them in the PWHL. They play hard, and it's always exciting to play against them. But we came out hard and we wanted to be dominant. We're here to win a gold medal."

The Americans came out and played with a confidence the nervous-looking Canadians couldn’t match. Yes, the Canucks were without captain Marie-Philip Poulin, a serious loss, indeed, but the game looked like more of a statement from the Americans than anything else.

"Obviously, their leader is out, and we see that," Heise continued. "I hope they wouldn't use that as an excuse because no matter what we'd come out and play the same way. We have to focus on us because at the end of the day we're here to win a game."

"I wasn't expecting that from our group," said Julia Gosling of the team's nervous start. "Honestly, I think we should have confidence after the last two games. I guess the pressure kind of got to us a little, but next time around we're going to be confident and really take it to them."

The first good scoring chance of the game came early when Hilary Knight turned and fired a low shot that was nicely kicked out by Ann-Renee Desbiens. No goal there, but it was a sign of things to come.

A minute later, they opened the scoring off a faceoff win in the Canada end. The puck came back to Caroline Harvey who moved in unopposed. She snapped a puck between Desbiens’ pads that just squeaked through at 3:45.

Later in the period Havey had another great chance, but the goalie kicked out the left pad again to keep it a 1-0 game. But Canada lacked flow and imagination with the puck, and the few shots they managed were mostly blocked by U.S. defenders. Aerin Frankel faced only four harmless shots in the opening 20 minuets.

The U.S. added to their lead with a late goal on a defensive breakdown. Abbey Murphy saw a hard pass go off her skate and deep into the Canada end, but she chased it down and got to it first. She turned and fired a no-look, backhand pass to the slot. Bilka was right there to lift a quick shot over Desbiens’ shoulder at 17:18 to make it a well-deserved 2-0 lead.

The Americans made it 3-0 early in the second, and not without some controversy. Desbiens stopped a long shot but bobbled the puck, and Kirsten Simms barged into the crease to knock it over the goal line. Video review confirmed the puck crossed the line, but then Canada’s coach Troy Ryan challenged the play on goalie interference. He was denied, and the U.S. went right back to another power play.

Britta Curl rattled a shot off the post, and Canada had a power play that barely managed to get the puck into the American end. The U.S. just continued to skate and dominated virtually all the one-on-one battles. 

They added to their lead at 13:00 off a Canadian turnover at the U.S. blue line. Murphy took the puck deep into the Canadian end and found Bilka, who was being checked by Laura Stacey. All the same, she got her stick on the puck and fired a rocket over Desbiens’ glove to make it 4-0. 

Midway through the third, Laila Edwards added to Canada's woes. She intercepted a pass in centre ice, skated over the line, and snapped a hard screen shot over Desbiens' shoulder at 11:53 to make it 5-0. That spelled the end for Desbiens, who was pulled in favour of Emerance Maschmeyer.

"I think we're going to remember the parts of this game that we can learn from," Gosling added. "And we learned a lot this game. Not the result we wanted, but hopefully we'll have a chance with them again in the later rounds. We'll bring a better performance next time."