Ice hockey-US hand Canada first-ever shutout at Games in stunning rout

MILAN, Feb 10 : The United States sent a message with a resounding 5-0 win over depleted rivals Canada in the Milano Cortina group stage on Tuesday, handing the defending Olympic champions their first-ever shutout at the Games. 

Forward Hannah Bilka scored twice while forward Kirsten Simms and defenders Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards added goals at Santagiulia Arena for the United States' fourth consecutive win of the Games to clinch the top spot in Group A.

"Our players are just kind of honing in on our little details and playing really well together, doing things together, battling together, and just doing it for each other," said Abbey Murphy, who notched three assists for the U.S.

"That's the most important part."

The disjointed Canadian team had no firepower against the Americans without their talismanic "Captain Clutch" Marie-Philip Poulin, who suffered a lower-body injury during Monday's win over the Czech Republic.

"We played like we didn't have confidence with the puck," said Canada's coach Troy Ryan. "We rushed a lot of decisions."

Canada will hope to regroup when they face Finland on Thursday in their final group stage game.

U.S. TEAM SET TONE EARLY

A raucous crowd piled into Santagiulia Arena for what many had expected to be a close contest between the two powerhouse countries, the only nations ever to top the podium since women's hockey joined the Games in 1998.

But Harvey set the tone when she fired the puck underneath Canada goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens' leg in the fourth minute to open the scoring with her second goal in two days, starting the rout. 

Murphy seemingly had eyes on the back of her head as she flipped the puck behind her to connect with forward Bilka, who rifled a shot from the slot into the net