After a strong third-place finish in Group B of the Preliminary Round of the 2026 Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey competition, Team Italy’s dreams of securing a medal, and those of former Harvard captain Kristin Della Rovere ’23, were dashed on Friday morning by the powerhouse United States team.

During group play, Della Rovere helped power a Cinderella run for the host country, tallying critical points during the preliminary round and leading the team to a 2-2 record. Before this winter, the Italian women had never won an Olympic hockey game.

Team USA entered the knockout stage of the 2026 Olympic women’s hockey tournament exactly how a favorite should. The Americans, one of just two nations to ever secure a gold medal in women’s ice hockey, claimed the top overall seed after a spotless 4-0 preliminary run, outscoring opponents 20-1 and punctuating it with a 5-0 shutout of its rival, Canada.

Italy, meanwhile, wasn’t supposed to be here. The host nation qualified automatically for the Games, but the Azzurre were true underdogs in a tournament viewed as a buildup to an inevitable gold medal clash between the U.S. and Canada. Women’s hockey participation in Italy has remained small for years. Yet, for two electric weeks in February, this context became part of the charm. The home crowd packed the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena. Italy opened the tournament with its first-ever Olympic women’s hockey win, notched a 4-1 statement upset against France in group play, and made Milan feel anything but neutral ice.

After shocking the world and advancing into the knockout rounds of the tournament, it was time for the dream matchup: Italy vs. the United States. The game posed the tournament’s feel-good story against the tournament’s machine.

Inside that giant Olympic storyline was Della Rovere, the Italian-Canadian center who spent four years in Cambridge dominating the ice in a Crimson jersey.

At Harvard, Della Rovere was a force to be reckoned with: second on the team in scoring as a freshman, the team’s leading scorer as a sophomore, an All-ECAC and All-Ivy selection as a junior, and the NCAA’s leader in faceoff wins as a senior captain. After graduating and playing in the PWHL, Della Rovere signed with an Italian-based club and pursued naturalization to represent Italy at the 2026 Olympics.

The commitment paid off for Della Rovere. She recorded a goal and an assist in Italy’s win over France and later buried a game-winner against Japan, which helped propel her team into the quarterfinals, an outcome that still feels surreal considering where Italian women’s hockey has historically stood on the international stage.

The first period against the Americans was essentially an endurance test, and Italy’s goaltender Gabriella Durante passed with flying colors. She absorbed the early pressure, denying chance after chance as the U.S. poured 20 shots on goal in the opening period. American forward Abbey Murphy had a wide-open look late with a chance to push the lead to two, but Durante somehow got her stick down to stop the puck. The Azzure blocked shots, chased down pucks, and fed off the dueling “USA” and “Italia” chants that ricocheted around the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena.

Even Della Rovere found a moment. Late in the first period, she cut down the right side of the ice and put a good shot on goal, sparking one of Italy’s best offensive sequences of the period.

The U.S. rarely lets games stay close for long, and the second period proved no different.

After American defender Megan Keller ripped the opening goal, the floodgates finally gave way. U.S. forward Kendall Coyne Schofield scored twice in quick succession to blow the game open, and the Americans kept coming. Forward Laila Edwards ripped one through traffic from the slot. Forward Britta Curl-Salemme converted a wraparound during a short-handed sequence to make it 5-0. Forward Hannah Bilka finished a point-blank redirection off a feed to push the score to 6-0.

The physicality only escalated. There were big hits that went uncalled, plenty of post-whistle shoving, and a moment when American forward Joy Dunne and Italian defender Franziska Stocker squared up with enough intent to remind everyone that fighting is banned at the Olympics—it briefly looked like they were about to test that rule. By the time the second intermission arrived, the U.S. bench was confident, the Italian bench was furious, and both sides were animated.

Italy’s success story didn’t disappear during the loss. Durante, for all the damage done, had been outstanding early, keeping the game close even as the U.S outshot them 51-6. The crowd kept pulsing. The local pride didn’t go anywhere, even as the Americans’ depth and speed eventually became impossible to overcome.

For Team USA, the win reflected the depth expected of a favorite, with contributions throughout the lineup and the luxury of rotating between Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips in net.

For Italy, the quarterfinal was the end of its stint at the Winter Games, but not the end of its story. The team arrived with modest expectations and left with two Olympic wins and a trip to the quarterfinal.

For Della Rovere, competing against the United States on the Olympic stage added another layer to the night as the Harvard alum skated in her country’s Olympics against the gold medal favorites. Friday’s result wasn’t the ending she wanted, but she helped highlight Italian women’s ice hockey on the international stage.


— Staff Writer Tamar H. Scheinfeld can be reached at [email protected].