The coach of Canada's women's ice hockey team said she had received angry e-mails following their record 16-0 win over Italy in the Olympic tournament opener.

The thrashing in front of a large crowd at the Palasport Olimpico last weekend went into the record books as the worst beating in women's Olympic ice hockey history, leading some to accuse Canada of running up the score against the hopelessly mis-matched Italians.

Canadian coach Melody Davidson, however, defended her team explaining that in Olympic competition goal differential could figure into any tie-breaking procedure.

"I received a few of those (e-mails) myself," said Davidson.

"Regardless of the score, this is the Olympics. These girls have worked hard to be here and we would take things away from our team and our opponents and everybody involved if we didn't compete as hard as we could."

After the game members of the Italian team accepted defeat graciously and had nothing but praise for Canada.

The e-mails had little impact on Canada, as the defending gold medallists continued their scoring rampage routing Russia 12-0.