updated 6:21 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2006

TURIN, Italy - After shutting out its first two opponents in the women’s Olympic hockey tournament, defending champ Canada is still on the defensive.

Coach Melody Davidson received critical e-mails after the Canadians opened with a record-setting 16-0 victory over host Italy. Sunday’s 12-0 rout of Russia raised more questions about running up the score.

“That’s definitely not what we’re doing. We’re just competing,” Davidson said, adding that her team’s goal is to reach the gold medal game — not humiliate anyone along the way.”

Davidson said she received a “few” e-mails from back home after Saturday night’s rout of Italy, the most lopsided result in Olympic women’s hockey history.

Asked to describe the gist of the messages, she said the Canadians basically were accused of piling on an overmatched opponent.

“We definitely don’t focus on the scoreboard. It’s not about what the score is, it’s about us moving the puck and making good plays. It’s about success as a team. ... It is the Olympics, regardless of the score. These girls have worked hard to be here. I would take things away from our team, our opponents and everybody involved if we didn’t compete as hard as we could.”

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Meghan Agosta and Cherie Piper scored three goals apiece and goalie Charline Labonte stopped 17 Russian shots to pace Sunday’s win.

“The Russians easily could have scored three or four goals on us if it wasn’t for great goaltending,” Davidson said. “You play the same team again and they’ll score those goals.”

Canada and the United States are strong favorites to face each other in their third straight gold medal game. A loss by either team before then would be considered a major upset.

Although it’s not surprising the Canadians easily handled Italy and Russia, their dominance in the preliminary round has been impressive.

The Italians only got off five shots. Russia, which lost its opening game to Sweden, had more scoring opportunities, but Labonte rose to the occasion.

“It’s very difficult to make any comments when you lose by this score,” Russian coach Alexy Kalintsev said. “We also had a very difficult match against the Swedish team, but that doesn’t justify how we played.”

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Hayley Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouellette each scored three goals in Saturday night’s win over Italy. The Canadians had Sunday’s game well in control before either of them made much of an impact.

Four different players — Agosta, Piper, Vicky Sunohara and Danielle Goyette — scored before Wickenheiser’s unassisted goal put Canada up 6-0 at 17:48 of the opening period.

Ouellette got into the act with her second assist on Katie Weatherston’s goal early in the second period. Agosta’s third goal made it 9-0, and the margin would have been greater if Russian goalie Nadezhda Aleksandrova hadn’t stopped several point-blank shots.

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