Palos Heights-native Kendall Coyne-Schofield had been held out of the scoring column in round-robin play, but she broke out in a 6-0 win over Italy Friday.
Coyne-Schofield scored twice as the United States continued their dominant play to open these Games, as they’ve now outscored their opponents 26-1 in five games in Milan.
Caroline Harvey picked up a pair of assists and now leads Team USA with nine points in the Olympics, and Megan Keller, Britta Curl, Laila Edwards and Hannah Bilka all scored goals as the U.S. advanced to the semifinal round.
Shut out during the round-robin play, Coyne-Schofield finally got her first goal of the Olympics early in the second period. Harvey’s shot from the point skipped to the side of the Italian net, and Coyne-Schofield was able to flip the puck underneath the goaltender and it squibbed into the net, giving the U.S. a 2-0 lead.
Coyne-Schofield’s second goal was another quick shot on the move, as Curl found her with a nice touch pass and the U.S. star ripped home a one-timer to make it a 3-0 game, just three minutes after she scored her first goal of the Games.
Sweden beat Czechia earlier in the day by a score of 2-0 to advance to the semifinals, with two more quarterfinal games remaining.
Canada will face Germany and Finland will play Switzerland in the other two quarterfinals on Saturday, with the semifinals set to take place Monday.
