MILAN (AP) — As talented and deep as the Americans appear to be, coach John Wroblewski wasn’t ready to accept his team being considered the favorite a day before the women’s hockey tournament opens at the Milan Cortina Games.
After initially sidestepping the question following practice on Wednesday, Wroblewski reflected more on the lows — rather than the highs — the U.S. has endured in the four years since he took over.
“You say we’re favorites. What if you would have asked this in February of 2024?” he said, referring to the U.S. losing a seven-game Rivalry Series of exhibition games to Canada. The Americans lost the final four games by a combined margin of 16-5.
“I mean, Canada was cleaning us up in Rivalry. We weren’t even getting the puck,” Wroblewski said. “I remember those bruises and those scars. And I’m sure you’ve got Hilary (Knight) and Megan (Keller), Alex (Carpenter) in particular, they were in those games and it’s not much fun to be in those games.”
True enough.
The two nations are 2-2 in world championship tournaments since Canada won its fifth gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
And though Canada holds the edge in winning three of the past four Rivalry Series, what’s difficult to overlook is how dominating the Americans appeared in overwhelming their cross-border rivals in their most recent meetings spanning November and December.
The U.S. swept all four games by a combined score of 24-7. That included a 10-4 win in Game 3, which marked the most goals the Canadian women have ever allowed in international play.
Though the exhibition series generally isn't an indicator on how the two global powers fare in international competition, the sweep raised eyebrows over a potential shift in power favoring the Americans.
“I don’t know. You tell me?” said U.S. captain Hilary Knight, who will be making her fifth and potentially final Olympic appearance. “It’s a clean slate every time you get to a tournament. You have to work hard.”
The U.S. opens Group A play facing Czechia on Thursday in a four-game preliminary round schedule that closes with a showdown against Canada on Tuesday. And it’s more than likely the two nations will meet yet again in the gold-medal match on Feb. 18.
Led by captain Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada returns 16 player from the team that set numerous scoring records and finished 7-0 in dominating the 2022 Beijing Games. The U.S. roster, by comparison, has been transformed by a youth movement. Only 11 of 23 return from 2022 on a team featuring seven players yet to complete their college careers.
Canada coach Troy Ryan is impressed, referring to the U.S. roster as featuring one of the best young cores he’s ever seen.
But he’s not ready to give way to perception or prognosis, while acknowledging his team was not pleased with how it performed in the latest Rivalry Series.
“Joking with our team, I said, `No one put a parade together for the first three Rivalry Series wins, so I’m not going to hang myself on a Rivalry Series loss,’” Ryan said.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, I think Denmark, Utica (New York), Brampton (Ontario), and Czechia, I think we were not favored,” he added, referring to the sites of the past four world championships. “So it just feels normal.”
The U.S. has won six straight meetings against the Canadians, dating to preliminary-round and gold-medal wins at the world championships in April.
“I don’t mind being the underdog. But we don’t really see ourselves as that,” Canadian forward Brianne Jenner said. “We know what the expectations are for our country. But you know what, we’re fine with whatever story people want to tell about us. We’re ready to prove ourselves the next two weeks.”
The Czechs and Finland might also have a say in the matter. The two have split bronze over the past four world championships, with Czechia winning in 2022 and '23, followed by Finland winning the past two.
“It has allowed our confidence to grow. And with confidence comes hunger. So I think we’re a hungry group,” Czechia coach Carla MacLeod said of a team that only made its Olympic debut in 2022. “It’s only our second Olympics. But certainly there’s a belief in the room that we can go play our best games and see where it takes us.”
Switzerland rounds out Group A.
Sweden is considered the favorite to win Group B, which also features Japan, Germany, Italy and France, which is making its Olympic debut.
AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Montreal Victoire's Marie-Philip Poulin (29) reacts after scoring against the Toronto Sceptres during the second period of an PWHL hockey game in Laval, Quebec, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
FILE- United States forward Hilary Knight (21) and Canada forward Marie-Philip Poulin (29) battle during the second period of the gold medal game at women's world hockey championships in Brampton, Ontario, Sunday, April 16, 2023. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - US's Taylor Heise (27), Lacey Eden (7), Laila Edwards (10) Caroline Harvey (4) and Haley Winn (8) celebrate with teammates after the US defeated Canada in a Rivalry Series women's hockey game Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 24 Palestinians, including two babies, and straining an already fragile ceasefire deal, hospital officials said. Israel said some of the strikes came in response to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that seriously wounded one.
Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect on Oct. 10. The escalating Palestinian toll has prompted many in Gaza to say it feels like the war is continuing unabated. Among the Palestinians killed Wednesday were at least five children, seven women and an on-duty paramedic, according to hospital officials.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
Israel strongly denies accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a surprise barrage of rockets, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251.
The ceasefire pact attempted to halt the more than 2-year-old war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, it has been marred by repeated flare-ups of violence.
A total of 556 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and 1,500 wounded since the ceasefire went into effect, according to Gaza health officials. Those killed include 197 children and 82 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel’s military says four of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began.
Israel’s military has said its strikes are responses to Hamas violations of the ceasefire or militant attacks on its soldiers. Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and Qatar, recently condemned what they called Israel’s “repeated violations” of the deal.
An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military policy, told The Associated Press that Israel's latest attacks were in response to militant gunfire that badly wounded a reservist soldier Wednesday morning.
Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old daughter Wateen Khabbaz, her 5-month-old cousin, Mira Khabbaz, and the children's grandmother.
The Israeli military said the attack was a real-time response to gunfire that targeted its soldiers.
Mourners gathered in the courtyard of Shifa Hospital Wednesday morning for funeral prayers.
“What did this child do? …. Why are they killing the children?” asked a relative of the family, Mohammad Jaser.
“We don’t understand why this is happening to us. What do we do? Where do we go? This isn’t life,” he said.
Two young children were seen kneeling at the body of their father as a woman told them to bid him farewell. A young girl kissed the dead man's cheeks.
A strike on a tent in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis killed at least three people and wounded 10 others, according to a field hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent in the area. The dead included Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, a paramedic who was on duty at the time, said the hospital.
The Israeli military said the strike had targeted and killed a Hamas platoon commander, Bilal Abu Assi, who led a deadly attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 assault. It said it had used surveillance, precision weapons and other means to avoid hitting bystanders and “regrets any harm caused to uninvolved civilians.”
A separate strike in Khan Younis killed three people.
Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said a 12-year-old boy was among the dead, and that they were killed by a strike on a family's tent. An Israeli military official said the strike targeted three individuals who approached Israeli-controlled territory, posing an immediate danger to troops.
At least 38 Palestinians were wounded in total by the strikes Wednesday, the Gaza health ministry said.
The Rafah border crossing’s opening Monday was hailed as a step forward for the fragile ceasefire. But since then, Palestinian passage through the crossing has been marred by delays, interrogations and uncertainty over who would be allowed to cross.
It took the entire day Tuesday for 40 Palestinians to enter Gaza. Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, they finally arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where their families welcomed them. By midday Wednesday, no one else had passed through the crossing; the World Health Organization did not have a later update as evening approached.
Despite no traffic, a European Union official said the Rafah border crossing was open. An EU mission and Palestinian workers were present at the crossing. The official, tasked with communicating for the EU, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be named.
Three women who crossed into Gaza on Monday told The Associated Press a day later that Israeli troops blindfolded and handcuffed them, then interrogated and threatened them, holding them for several hours before they were released.
The EU official said that the border mission had no knowledge of luggage confiscation or mistreatment by Israeli soldiers or Palestinians in the border areas.
Asked about the reports, the Israeli military said that “no incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions, or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment are known.”
While all fighting has not stopped, some parts of the ceasefire deal have moved forward.
Hamas has released all of the hostages it was holding, and in return Israel has released several thousand Palestinians and is beginning to reopen Rafah. Increased amounts of humanitarian aid have flowed into Gaza and a new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer the territory's daily affairs.
But other key elements of the ceasefire appear to have stalled, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. The U.S. has given no timeline on when these parts of the deal will wrap up.
Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel from Jerusalem. AP writer Sam McNeil contributed from Brussels.
Palestinians carry the body of a man who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian woman and her children bid farewell to their husband and father, Youssef Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians carry 1-week-old baby Wateen al-Khabaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians carry 1-week-old baby Wateen al-Khabaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A Palestinian man mourns over Ahmed Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian wife and children bid farewell to their father, Youssef Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian Raed al-Khabba carries his 3-month-old daughter Mira al-Khabbaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
