US Women Shut Out Ill Finns

Hilary Knight scored to tie the US Olympic women's hockey career goal record, and the Americans wore down a Finland opponent that spent much of the week dealing with a stomach virus in a 5-0 win at the Milan Cortina Games on Saturday. The favored Americans, who are now 2-0 in the tournament and 11-0 in Olympic meetings against Finland, had just about everything going in their favor—including their health—on Saturday, the AP reports. As recently as Thursday, a norovirus outbreak had 13 of Finland's players ill or in quarantine and just 10, two of them goalies, able to skate, per the Athletic.

With Vice President JD Vance and his family watching, US defender Megan Keller had a goal and two assists; Alex Carpenter, Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy also scored. Aerin Frankel stopped 11 shots for her first shutout in her second career Olympic game. Finland came out with speed but showed signs of rustiness while struggling to handle the puck, per the AP. Petra Nieminen had it slide off her stick on a potential break two minutes in. The Finns eventually wore down while managing 11 shots. Goalie Sanni Ahola stopped 44 shots overall. The US broke open the game with three goals through the first 9:17 of the second period. Knight, 36, capped the run when she was set up to the left of the net. She paused, then spun toward the net and banked a shot off Ahola's blocker. The goal was Knight's second of the tournament and 14th in her USA Hockey-record fifth Olympic Games.

The Finns assembled as a full team for the first time since practice on Tuesday. That night, four players developed symptoms of a norovirus, and Olympic officials postponed the team's opener against Canada until Feb. 12. On Friday, coach Tero Lehtera pledged that his team would play the Americans even if it meant having only the minimum five forwards and a goalie. Switzerland's team, which beat the Czech Republic 4-3 on Friday, revealed that one of its players tested positive for the norovirus. The entire Swiss team spent Friday night in isolation, staying away from the opening ceremony.