MILAN – Holy schnikes! Team USA knocked the ever-loving poutine out of Canada, eh?

I went to the hockey version of a border war on Tuesday night, and a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert broke out.

Free Bird!

That’s the classic rock song the arena DJ plays every time a U.S. woman scores a goal in the Olympic hockey tournament.

And Canada players might well have heard that soaring guitar solo by Allen Collins in their fitful dreams of regret after their bitter American rivals banged home not one, not two … but five goals in a shutout that was not even as close as that score would indicate.

From the heavy hits that forced every head to be on a swivel to the us-against-them vibe of 14,000 spectators jammed into this new hockey barn, the intensity rivaled anything at a Stanley Cup playoff game.

USA vs Canada is spicy. And sassy.

“You can’t deny it. There’s extra. There’s more intensity. And we rise to the occasion,” said 22-year-old U.S. defender Laila Edwards, who added insult to the Canadians’ injured pride with the last goal in this rout.

These two teams don’t particularly like each other.

And that’s an understatement.

Maybe it’s because familiarity between the two hockey powers breeds contempt. The bordering nations have met a whopping 194 times in major competitions over the past four decades.

For those of you keeping score at home, Canada has snatched gold from the American women’s mitts in three of the last four Olympic hockey tournaments, with the championship games in Russia, South Korea and China all decided by the woulda, shoulda, coulda scores of 3-2.

That’s why this blowout was so stunning.

“We were a little standoffish at the beginning,” lamented Canadian forward Julia Gosling.

And Team USA stomped on that timidity.

From the time Caroline Harvey, widely considered the best defender on the planet, beat Ann-Renee Desbiens with a shot Canada’s starting goalie never saw until it was in the back of the net only three minutes, 45 seconds into the opening period, it was clear Team USA took the ice to make a statement:

We’re bigger. And faster. Deal with it.

“Another giant step,” U.S. coach John Wroblewski said.

The Americans have swept through Group A, undefeated in four games of the tourney’s preliminary round, by the overwhelming cumulative score of 20-1.

They look unstoppable, no?

The Americans might as well have a bye through the gold-medal game. 

Stop that nonsense, insisted Wroblewski.

“What’s the hardest part of climbing the mountain?” he asked.

Arrogance. One misstep and it can be a hard fall.

The American women face the most difficult part in their quest for gold.

“Getting home,” Wroblewski said. “If you ever feel good about climbing Mount Everest and you think you’ve really done something, the mountain eats you up.” 

There was nothing in this game that suggested Canada possesses the physical gifts to match the USA. But everything about this rivalry suggests the Americans should never, ever believe our neighbors to the north will surrender an inch on the ice, much less concede a championship.

In this game, the scoreboard was not as important as the body language on the bench of Team Canada. I asked coach Troy Ryan what he observed in the eyes of his players and what his message was when his group went down four goals to the USA before the third period even began.

“The big message to me is there seemed to be a bit of a shoulder drop. The group got down a little bit,” said Ryan, disappointed in the sense of self-pity.

“Honestly? I’ve got no time for it. You’re at the Olympic Games. We’ve got other games to play. Yes, it’s a bit of a cliche: But you’ve either got to have success in a game, or you’ve got to learn. You learn a little bit about yourself. You learn a bit about the opposition. There’s just no time for dropping your shoulders and hanging your head.”

What we don’t know:

With this 5-0 victory, did the Americans rip the fighting spirit from the only team with a fighting chance to beat them?