MILAN — The amazing thing is, relative to the other games Team USA has played at these Olympics, Monday counted as close.

Relative to any reasonable standard, of course, the Americans’ 5-0 beatdown of Sweden to advance to the gold medal game was not close, or even within a football field of being close. But the women of Team USA have dispatched anything resembling a normal standard.

For starters, they have not given up a goal since 18:37 of the second period against Czechia, 11 days and five games ago. That’s a shutout streak of 331:23. At the Olympics.

The U.S. will look to extend it further, and to win its third gold medal in women’s hockey, Thursday night against Canada, when they will be overwhelming favorites.

Their games here have followed a similar pattern. For a period or so, it stays close, maybe even verging on competitive. Then the levee breaks.

“They can just score and score and score,” Sweden’s Hilda Svensson said, her team having fallen victim to a second-period flurry.

“Today we needed plexiglass in front of our net to stay in the game,” Sweden coach Ulf Lundberg said.

So, what exactly made this semifinal, in which Team USA never looked under any serious threat, more competitive than the rest? Well, goaltender Aerin Frankel actually had to do some work, finishing with 23 saves, and the Swedes had a few stretches where they looked competitive — and that’s about the end of the list.

Svensson, asked if it was the best team she’d ever faced, responded in the affirmative. Hayley Scamurra, asked if it was the best team she’d ever played on, did too.

“I think we’re definitely hitting a great stride right now,” Caroline Harvey said.

The game held at 1-0 on Cayla Barnes’ opener until the last 10 minutes of the second, when a Sweden club that had been bending finally broke for good.

Team USA’s dominant line of Hannah Bilka, Abbey Murphy and Taylor Heise struck twice in a row to extend the lead to 3-0. First, the puck zipped from Murphy to Bilka to Heise off the rush and Heise’s shot trickled past Swedish netminder Ebba Svensson Traff at the 29:09 mark. A little more than five minutes later, Murphy beat Svensson Traff from a sharp angle with a wicked wrist shot that went top-shelf into the corner.

For good measure, Kendall Coyne Schofield added a fourth goal just 58 seconds after Murphy’s, tipping in Laila Edwards’ shot from above the slot and prompting Sweden to pull Svensson Traff for Emma Soderberg.

Scamurra added a fifth before the second intermission, and the score hung there for the remainder.

“I think it’s a testament to the pressure we put on teams,” Barnes said. “I think we’re relentless on pucks. We throw a lot at teams. It’s hard to sustain and defend against.

“We have line after line, top to bottom, all 22 players coming with speed and physicality, and I think that’s hard to defend. We do a good job of wearing teams down and playing with pace.”

Now they will need to do the same to Canada, which owned the sport for the better part of this century, but which has fallen behind this crop of young Americans.

“For an athlete, for Taylor [Heise], for Alex Carpenter, for Hayley Scamurra, I’m thinking about them. Hilary [Knight]’s legacy, anyone else who this might be their last Olympics that’s already won [in 2018],” coach John Wroblewski said. “Their legacy in this program and on the worldwide stage, that’s what gets me going. I’m getting chills thinking about helping them get to what they want.”

What they want is a gold medal.

“It’s one shot for gold,” Lee Stecklein said. “And then if you don’t get it, you have to wait four years if you’re lucky to be there again. So it’s a whole different sort of pressure.

“I think this group is ready.”