Harvey, Dunne lead US to 3rd straight win in Olympic women's hockey. Poulin hurt as Canada wins

MILAN (AP) — After raving about his young players, goaltending and defender Caroline Harvey’s driving speed in a 5-0 win over Switzerland on Monday, U.S. coach John Wroblewski was quickly reminded of the next challenge ahead for his women’s hockey team at the Milan Cortina Games.

Canada is up next. And with or without Marie-Philip Poulin — Canada's "Captain Clutch — Wroblewski understands his team is in for a handful on Tuesday.

“Yeah, I heard about that. It’s a shame,” Wroblewski said of Poulin limping off the ice and missing the final two periods of Canada’s 5-1 win over Czechia.

Canada coach Troy Ryan said he didn’t have full details of Poulin’s apparent lower-body injury. He said it was too early to say whether she could play Tuesday.

“The interesting thing about looking forward to Canada is that every time we play them, it’s got a different life, a different culture," Wroblewski said. "And so we’ll see what we get tomorrow night.”

The U.S. might be favored in the tournament, but the Canadians are the defending Olympic champions.

The Americans continued finding new contributors in winning their first three games by a combined score of 15-1. It was the youngsters’ time to shine against Switzerland.

Harvey and Joy Dunne, two of seven U.S. players still in college, each had a goal and two assists.

Gwyneth Philips stopped 20 shots in her Olympic debut, and shared the shutout with Ava McNaughton, The 21-year-old McNaughton stopped one shot after being inserted with 1:48 left. Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka and Haley Winn also scored in an outing the Americans closed with three goals in the first 7:42 of the third period.

Captain Hilary Knight had two assists to increase her Olympic career point total to 31 — one short of matching the U.S. record set by Jenny Potter.

If not for Swiss goalie Andrea Braendli stopping 35 of the first 37 shots she faced, and 45 overall, the game could well have been an early rout.

“Switzerland’s goalie was awesome. She had some kind of force field going back there, I don’t know what,” Wroblewski said. “I think we just needed take a deep breath.”

Switzerland dropped to 1-2 and was shut out for the second straight outing following a 4-0 loss to Canada on Saturday.

“It takes it’s toll after a while, they just keep on coming at you,” Swiss coach Colin Muller said. “I thought we did a great job defensively and better offensively today. We had more courage than we had last game. It’s great to see. Every game we get better. If it ended up 3-1, I would’ve been happy.”

Though Switzerland tested the Americans early, Philips stood firm.

The second-year PWHL Ottawa Charge goalie kicked out her left skate just in time to stop a shot from Ivana Wey in the opening minute. Some 12 1/2 minutes in, Philips got her glove up to foil Rahel Enzler, who was set up on the doorstep.

Philips said the early action helped settle her nerves. And she was more than happy to share the shutout.

“I’m ecstatic. I’m so happy with Ava,” Philips said. “She’s one heck of a goalie and she deserves to be here and get some ice time.”

Then it was Harvey’s turn to take over. The offensive-minded defender drove up the left boards and sent a pass into the middle for Winn to redirect for the opening goal 6:04 in. Harvey capped the scoring by driving in from the left point and beating Braendli by jamming in the puck on the short side.

“It was a great game. Super fired up for the girls,” Harvey said, deflecting the credit. “Just driving my feet. Teammates were getting open and they were making stuff happen and it was a lot of fun with the girls tonight.”

After having limited playing time at the 2022 Beijing Games, the Wisconsin senior has been spurred by Wroblewski to use her speed and playmaking abilities.

“The amount of times that she drove was insane. I loved the initiatives that she takes,” the coach said. “I hope it keeps rolling, not only for her, but for her teammates.”

After Poulin exited, her team responded with a rush of goals.

Canada was leading 1-0 on Kristin O’Neill’s goal when Poulin left the game after being rocked by an illegal hit from Kristyna Kaltounkova. Poulin then seemed to be keeping weight off her right leg as she left the ice seconds into her next shift.

The Canadians scored twice in a minute soon after, with goals by Laura Stacey and Sarah Fillier prompting the Czechs to pull starting goalie Julie Pejsova for Michaela Hesova. Canada moved to 2-0 for the tournament but was denied a second shutout when Natalie Mlynkova scored for the Czechs.

Host nation Italy secured a place in the quarterfinals of the Olympic women’s hockey tournament for the first time by beating Japan 3-2 on Monday.

Germany followed by claiming its spot in the next round with a 2-1 overtime win over France.

Both Italy and Germany improved to 2-1 and joined Sweden (3-0) in completing the three Group B nations to clinch a quarterfinal berth. Japan and France were eliminated from contention.

Italy advanced in just its second Olympic appearance, both as the host, after going 0-4 at the 2006 Turin Games and finishing last among the eight-team field.

“I think this is everybody’s dream coming true,” Italy’s Canada-born goalie Gabriella Durante said. “Hopefully this just grows hockey in Italia that much more for little girls all over the country.”

Matilde Fantin scored twice, and Kristen Della Rovere's third period goal stood up as the game winner.

Katarina Jobst-Smith scored for Germany 1:17 into overtime by snapping in a shot from the high slot just inside the left post. Laura Kluge also scored and Sandra Abstreiter stopped 13 shots.

Estelle Duvin forced OT by scoring 8:21 into the third period, and Alice Philbert stopped 44 shots. France finished 0-4 in its Olympic debut, and was outscored by a combined margin of 13-4.

AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Canada's Sarah Fillier (10) reacts after scoring a goal in the first period against Czechia during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Canada's Marie-Philip Poulin (29) is down on the ice in the first period against Czechia during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

United States' Joy Dunne, right, celebrates after scoring her side's second goal during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Switzerland and United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

United States' Haley Winn, left, scores her side's opening goal during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Switzerland and United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Switzerland's Andrea Brandli makes a save against United States' Caroline Harvey during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between the United States and Switzerland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

France's Estelle Duvin, bottom, scores her side's opening goal during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Germany and France at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Germany's Katarina Jobst-Smith (28) celebrates scoring the winning goal with Germany's Lilli Welcke (23) in overtime against France during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Japan's Akane Shiga scores her side's second goal during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Japan and Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Italy's goalkeeper Gabriella Durante fails to save the puck as Japan's Akane Shiga scores her side's second goal during a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Japan and Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Italy players celebrate end of a preliminary round match of women's ice hockey between Japan and Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

KISKUNHALAS, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar says a crucial election next week where he's facing pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will be a “referendum” on whether Hungary continues on its drift toward Eastern autocracies, or can retake its place among the democratic societies of Europe.

Magyar, once an Orbán ally, poses the most serious threat to the nationalist prime minister's hold on power since he took office in 2010.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Magyar said the European Union's longest-serving leader has led the country on a “180-degree turn” in recent years, endangering its Western orientation while cozying up to Moscow.

Yet despite that drift, “Hungarians still see that Hungary’s peace and development are guaranteed by membership of the European Union and NATO,” Magyar said. “I think this really will be a referendum on our country's place in the world.”

Magyar spoke to the AP on Thursday following an election rally by his center-right Tisza party in Kiskunhalas, a small city of around 25,000 on Hungary's southern great plain. It was one of hundreds of rallies he's held in settlements big and small across the country, a campaign blitz that has him visiting up to six towns a day ahead of the April 12 election.

Orbán has gained a reputation as an inveterate disruptor within the EU for his frequent vetoes of important decisions. He has campaigned by sounding the alarm on a myriad of external dangers he says are threatening Hungarians — the war in Ukraine, a cabal of EU bureaucrats and financial elites aligned against Hungary, and an immigration crisis ever on the horizon.

Magyar, who is leading in most polls, has focused on issues that affect voters' everyday lives, like Hungary’s faltering state health care and public transportation sectors and what he describes as rampant government corruption.

At each of his rallies, he charges Orbán and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party with making Hungary the “poorest and most corrupt” country in the EU — and depicts a “peaceful, humane and functioning” country that is within reach.

Yet alongside that domestic message, Magyar has increasingly portrayed Orbán’s brinksmanship with the EU, and his drift toward Russia, as matters of critical importance for the country’s future.

“I think that Tisza will have an overwhelming electoral victory, because even Fidesz voters do not want our country to be a Russian puppet state, a colony, an assembly plant, instead of belonging to Europe,” he said.

Magyar and his party's meteoric rise caught many Hungarians by surprise. For nearly a decade and a half, a broad slate of fractured opposition parties had tried and failed to mount a serious threat to Orbán's hold on power.

While opposition politicians often slammed Orbán during debates in parliament, they rarely made efforts to win over his base of support in the rural countryside. Frustrated after a string of bitter losses, many opposition voters descended into political apathy.

Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer and former Fidesz insider, was previously married to an Orbán ally who served as Hungary’s justice minister. After working for several years as a diplomat in Brussels, he returned to Hungary and took positions in state institutions, gaining familiarity with the workings of Orbán's system.

But then, in the wake of a political scandal in 2024 involving a presidential pardon to an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case, Magyar publicly broke with Orbán's party, accusing it of overseeing entrenched corruption and capturing Hungary's institutions.

He quickly founded the center-right Tisza party — named for Hungary's second-largest river — which, only four months after Magyar's break into electoral politics, won 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections.

As Tisza's popularity grew, a chant heard at its rallies became a motto for its rise: “The Tisza is flooding.”

While Magyar has cast his task in the election as dismantling Orbán's autocratic system, he has promised to keep some of the prime minister's policies he views as positive, such as a fence along the southern border to keep out migrants, and a popular utility reduction program.

Still, his party — a member of the European Parliament's largest, center-right group — diverges from the constellation of far-right political movements in Europe and beyond that view Orbán as a shining example of nationalist populism in action.

In a sign of U.S. President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement's admiration for Orbán, Vice President JD Vance is set to visit Budapest on Tuesday in support of his reelection.

Many EU leaders are watching Hungary's election in the hopes that Orbán will be defeated.

His frequent vetoes — which most recently included blocking a major, 90-bill euro ($104-billion) EU loan for Ukraine — have often been to please his euroskeptic base, Magyar said, “vetoing just to veto so he can say at home that he is vetoing.”

The prime minister's conduct has led to renewed calls within the EU to reform the bloc’s foundational treaties by reducing the number of decisions that require unanimity — a way to buttress against the paralysis that can be caused by intransigent member states.

Magyar said that under a Tisza government, European leaders can expect a “constructive position,” but one that is “critical and willing to debate. We want to be there at the table.”

Despite Orbán's exploitation of the EU's unanimity rules, the ability to veto important decisions is a “valid option,” he continued, adding: “I think the European leaders have no problem with this, they have a problem with the unnecessary troublemaker role.”

“The task of a Hungarian prime minister at any given time is to represent Hungarian interests, and if necessary, to represent them forcefully,” he said. “Whatever it costs.”

Orbán has confounded, and even angered, nearly every other EU leader with his conciliatory approach to Russia and closeness to President Vladimir Putin. Some EU officials, and many of his opponents at home, have accused him of forsaking his commitments to the bloc on Moscow’s behalf.

As nearly every EU country cut off supplies of Russian fossil fuels following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hungary, along with Slovakia, maintained and even increased supplies — drawing ire from many countries who accused them of helping finance the war.

While Magyar has condemned Hungary's drift toward Moscow, as well as reports that Russian secret services are meddling in the election to tip it in Orbán's favor, he said his future government will pursue a “pragmatic” approach toward Russia.

“Pragmatism means that we have no say in Russia’s internal affairs, and they don’t have any say in our affairs,” he said. “We are both sovereign countries, and we respect each other, but we don’t have to like each other.”

Magyar has criticized Orbán's government for failing to diversify its energy mix, and advocated for reaching new agreements and constructing new infrastructure to bring oil and gas from other sources into landlocked Hungary.

Still, he said, “this does not mean that we must stop using Russian oil tomorrow. It means that the European Union’s resources must be used well.”

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar addresses people during an election rally in Kiskunhalas, Hungary, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar addresses people during an election rally in Kiskunhalas, Hungary, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Kiskunhalas, Hungary. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Kiskunhalas, Hungary. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)