Haley Winn scored two goals, captain Hilary Knight had a goal and an assist, and the United States started its title defense with a 4-0 win over Switzerland on Wednesday night in the IIHF women's world championship.
Winn opened the scoring at 5:23 of the second period when she sent in a wrister from the point while Swiss goaltender Andrea Brändli was heavily screened. Winn added another with 5:19 remaining in the game by ripping a shot past Brändli.
Kendall Coyne Schofield, who sat out 2023 to give birth to her son, Drew, scored her first international goal since 2022 to make it 2-0 on the 30th shot of the night for the U.S.
Knight, a nine-time world champion competing in her 14th tournament, tipped in a shot in front of the goal on a power play to put the U.S. ahead 3-0 with 9:13 remaining.
Aerin Frankel sealed it with an 11-save shutout.
Both teams play again on Friday. The U.S. will face the Czech Republic, while Switzerland has another tough test against Canada.
The defending champion Americans and Canadians are favored to play for gold on April 14 for what would be the 22nd time in 23 tournaments. The only exception came in 2019, when host team Finland upset Canada in the semifinals before losing a shootout to the Americans.
In other games, Sweden defeated Denmark, 3-1, and the Czech Republic routed Finland, 4-0.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.