TURIN, Italy (AP) – The scores are in: North America 39, World 0. And it could be a lot worse at the Olympic women’s hockey tournament.

Canada and the United States have dominated international play since it began in 1990, winning every championship and gold medal awarded. Sure, their six opponents in Turin seem to be deeper and more skilled than the field in Nagano eight years ago, but after three days in Italy, everyone can see the best are getting better even faster than everybody else.

Canada, the gold-medal favorite in Italy, won its first two games 16-0 and 12-0, results so lopsided even Canadians back home were wondering if their team ran up the score. The Americans were only slightly less prolific, winning 6-0 and 5-0 against better opponents.

It’s clear the divide in talent and poise separating North America from Europe is bigger than the Atlantic Ocean – and that’s not good for a sport’s Olympic health, as the untimely deaths of baseball and softball proved.

In a game already struggling with indifference and funding problems outside its native continent, the Olympic results aren’t pleasing – even to the players creating them.

“It’s hard to build the game when it’s being played like this,” U.S. defenseman Angela Ruggiero said. “I’m here to promote our game on the biggest stage it’s got, and it’s not the best hockey in the world when the teams are so different.”

Canada’s Hayley Wickenheiser actually favors a mercy rule in international play.

“The IIHF might want to look at a 10-goal differential,” she said. “It’s been pretty disappointing. I was a just surprised it was like that. I thought it was going to be closer. That’s not great hockey.”

Both the International Olympic Committee and international hockey’s governing body say there’s no real danger the sport could be dropped from the Olympics. Baseball and softball, two North American-dominated sports with similar problems in talent disparities and onerous production costs, have been eliminated from the 2012 Games in London.

“I think it scares a couple of us,” U.S. forward Katie King said. “We were around when softball was made an Olympic sport, and we were so happy. It’s just something you’ve always got to worry about.”

Instead, hockey officials are preaching patience with a game still in its adolescence.

“It took Sweden’s men 64 years to beat Canada at the Olympics, and I can promise you it won’t take the women 64 years to win,” Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said last week. “We must support the women’s game, so don’t be surprised about the results.”

Finland and Sweden clinched trips to the semifinal round with victories Monday. The Scandinavian nations are talented – and they’re also the only teams in Turin capable of even testing North America, much to Wickenheiser’s disappointment.

“I didn’t expect much from Italy, but Russia I thought would be better,” Wickenheiser said after racking up four points against the Russians. “I don’t think they played with much heart.”

A few Canadian fans are dismayed by the routs, e-mailing coach Melody Davidson and accusing her of running up the score. Wickenheiser scoffed at the idea, noting the Canadians even dropped into a conservative trap defense with 10 minutes left, yet kept generating scoring chances.

Ruggiero also laments two games of “special-teams exhibitions.” Overzealous officiating crews have called 28 minor penalties on the North American teams and 31 on their opponents in the first two games.

Many of the whistles resulted from questionable judgment calls on body-checking, which is illegal – another object of derision both inside and outside the game – but highly subjective as a penalty.

“That’s women’s hockey. Some refs think that if somebody falls down, you’ve got to call it,” said Ruggiero, who did some hitting in an American men’s minor league last year. “Part of that is the talent differences, because things look different to the refs when two teams are playing at two different speeds. Hopefully they’re not doing that when we play Canada.”

AP-ES-02-13-06 1556EST