One of the best teams ever iced: How Canada won Olympic women’s hockey gold 20 years ago in Italy

Five games played, only two goals against and a whopping 46 goals for.

That’s the stat line for the Canadian women who won Olympic hockey gold in Turin, Italy in 2006.

That Canadian team had it all. There was the star power of Hockey Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser, who scored 17 points in just five games. Her single-tournament points record wasn’t eclipsed until 2022, when Sarah Nurse broke the record.

Behind the scoring, there was smothering defence, and two bonafide starting goaltenders to choose from in Quebeckers Kim St-Pierre and Charline Labonté.

There was also a strong core of leaders, including the captain, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, the underrated Vicky Sunohara, and many others in between.

For the first, and only time, the gold medal match-up featured a non-North American team. Canada defeated Sweden 4-1 to win a second consecutive Olympic championship.

Some have argued the Canadians didn’t face stiff competition on their way to gold, since they never played the Americans.

But Cheryl Pounder, a defender on that team and a TSN hockey analyst, disagreed.

“Whether we had played the United States or Sweden, I do believe we would have been successful,” Pounder said.

As the Olympics return to Italy for Milano-Cortina 2026, two decades after the Games in Turin, CBC Sports gathered interviews with members of the 2006 Canadian team over the last year.

One word came up often: dominant.

“It was the greatest team that I've ever been a part of,” Pounder said.

The Canadians went into the Olympics in Turin in a much different position than in 2002, when they were underdogs.

In those Games, Canada won the country’s first Olympic championship. They followed it up with a world championship in 2004 in Halifax.