Red, White and Relentless: U.S. Women Fire a Record 85 Shots in a 14-0 Rout of Host Denmark to Reach the World Semifinals

The defending world champions came to Herning with a job to do, and they did it from the opening faceoff to the final horn.

The United States crushed host Denmark 14-0 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the women's ice hockey world championship, The Guardian reported. It was a performance built on relentless pressure: the Americans outshot the Danes 85-8, according to USA Hockey.

Those 85 shots were not just a lopsided number on a scoresheet. The Associated Press reported that they set a single-game record for the tournament, breaking the previous mark of 82, set by the United States against Sweden in 1997 in a 10-goal win. In other words, the only team that had ever come close to this kind of barrage was an earlier American squad, nearly three decades ago.

The pressure started almost immediately. Taylor Fox scored the opening goal just 57 seconds into the game, according to the IIHF's game report. The Americans never let up after that, and Hayley Scamurra put the 14th goal on the board with 6.3 seconds left on the clock.

Scoring was spread across the lineup. The Guardian reported that Harvey and Winn each scored twice in the rout. It was another big night for Caroline Harvey, who earlier in the tournament recorded a hat trick as the U.S. routed Austria 11-1 in Esbjerg.

On the other end, it would be easy to overlook the two goaltenders who stood in Denmark's crease and kept facing pucks all night. Danish goaltenders Emma-Sofie Nordstrom and Caroline Bjergstad combined for 71 saves, with 51 for Nordstrom and 20 for Bjergstad. That kind of workload is exhausting, and on a night when the scoreboard ran away from them, they kept competing in front of a home crowd that had a chance to see its national team play in a world championship quarterfinal.

At the other end of the ice, American goaltender Gwyneth Philips had a quiet but focused night, stopping all eight shots she faced to earn the shutout.

The win sets up a semifinal against Finland on Sunday, November 15. The IIHF lists the game for 3 p.m. local time in Herning, which is 9 a.m. Eastern. In the other semifinal, Canada will face Sweden at 7 p.m. local time, or 1 p.m. Eastern, after the Canadians edged Czechia 3-2 in their quarterfinal, The Guardian reported.

The winners advance to Monday's gold medal game, and the two semifinal losers will meet for bronze, as the tournament wraps up on November 16.

For the Americans, Finland is a familiar and dangerous opponent. The Finns have long been the program most capable of springing an upset on the two North American powers, and a semifinal is exactly the kind of game where a hot goaltender can change everything. A team that just put 85 shots on goal will want the same volume on Sunday, but the quality of the chances will matter far more against a stronger defense.

Women's hockey has grown into one of the great American success stories in international sport, and nights like this show the depth the U.S. program has built. When a roster can roll four lines and still keep the pressure on for 60 minutes, it reflects years of investment by families, youth coaches and college programs across the country.

There is also something worth saying about how the Americans played: hard, fast and clean, finishing the job without letting up on an opponent they were heavily favored to beat. That is not unsportsmanlike; it is respect for the game and for a tournament where every goal and every period can matter. Teams that coast in a quarterfinal tend to pay for it in the semifinal.

Now the real test begins. The United States came to Denmark as the defending champion, and two more wins would send it home with gold again. Sunday morning in Herning, the stars and stripes will be back on the ice, and American hockey fans will want to set their alarms.