Ecstasy for Team USA as they beat bitter rivals Canada in wild overtime thriller to win hockey gold medal at Winter Olympics

The women’s Olympic hockey final at the Milano Cortina Winter Games did not disappoint, and neither did Team USA, which came away with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over rival Canada thanks to a late equalizer from captain Hillary Knight. 

And it was that improbable goal, which came with an extra attacker, that ultimately set up Megan Keller’s winner in the 3-on-3 overtime. 

‘I’m lost for words,’ Keller said afterwards. ‘This is an incredible feeling. I love these girls so much. This group deserves it. Just the effort and the faith that we kept through this four-year journey is something very special.’ 

This rivalry been played on this stage six times before at the Winter Olympics, with Canada winning the previous meeting in Beijing in 2022. 

But things were dramatically different entering Thursday, with Team US winning the previous seven meetings in international play. And throughout the women’s ice hockey tournament in Milan, Canada looked prone to shakiness – getting battered 5-0 by the US in the group stage and barely surviving against Switzerland to reach the gold medal game.

The Americans, meanwhile, sent arguably their most dominant group ever to the Olympics. Going into Thursday evening’s showpiece, they were the heavy favorites- having gone undefeated in the tournament and outscoring their opposition by a combined 31-1.

It was a typical USA-Canada rivalry game: tight and heavily contested to the very end. But they still managed to finish with an aggregate score of 33-2 to clinch the gold.

It required a pair of American miracles. First, the goal from Knight to tie the game with less than three minutes remaining. Then, the beautiful game-winner from  Keller to send her defender to the floor before tucking in the shot that clinched the gold.

It’s the third time in history that the United States has won the gold in women’s hockey – having previously beaten Canada for the crown in 1998 and 2018. Equalizing Canada’s record of five golds is still a ways off. But tonight, it’s victory for Team USA once more.

Goaltender Aerin Frankel swatted aside 30 shots from Canada while her counterpart, Ann-Renee Desbiens, let in a pair of goals on 33 American attempts.

Knight became the highest-scoring American points scorer and goal scorer in Olympic history in what is her final game for the Stars and Stripes.

‘We definitely had to will something. We came out a little slow in the first, started to pick up momentum in the second, the third when you have a one goal deficit against Canada, great team, you have to find the back of the net – especially against a great goaltender,’ Knight told NBC’s Kathryn Tappen.

‘We knew it was a matter of time leaning on them slowly, slowly, but you can also run out of time against a great team. So fortunate that we have an amazing squad to get the job done.’

After an empty first period, a hooking penalty for Canada’s Ella Shelton should have paved the way for the United States to open the proceedings. Instead, a disaster in the back end led to Kristin O’Neill breaking the deadlock.

Whether it was laziness or just losing track the puck in the air, dominant defenseman Laila Edwards was the one caught out of position and racing back against the on-rush from O’Neill and Renata Fast.

Fast’s pass was expertly played, but so was the hesitation from O’Neill – who delayed just long enough for the normally unflappable Frankel to cheat to her right side. 

All that was required of O’Neill was to hold the puck an extra second, slipping it to her right and tucking it in with the backhand.

Credit the Americans for turning up the pressure after being punched in the mouth. 

The deficit led to chance after chance for Team USA in the second period, only to routinely be stonewalled by Desbiens time and time again.

As the clock ticked down, the desperation from the Americans became apparent. 

What had been a relatively clean game was disrupted by forward Britta Curl delivering a crunching hit from behind on Erin Ambrose – putting Team USA down a skater with less than five minutes remaining.

They survived, but produced nothing of note in the minutes thereafter. With 2:22 remaining, coach John Wroblewski pulled Frankel in a last ditch attempt to score.

Edwards delivered redemption with her shot from the point, which was tipped in front by the elder stateswoman Knight. A cheer went up. 1-1 to the United States.

Knight played the role of hero once again, as she had many times before, and became the United States’ all-time leading scorer in women’s hockey at the Olympics.

An attempt to end the game in regulation was unsuccessful. Considering two of the last three Olympic tournament ended in some form of overtime, it’s only natural that these proceedings required the same.

Chances flew from both sides, all leading to heroic attempts from the netminders to prevent disaster.

Just four minutes into the extra period, defenseman Taylor Heise dumped in a perfectly timed outlet pass for Keller.

Keller controlled the puck and then executed one of the nastiest toe drags ever performed in the Olympics to send Canada defender Claire Thompson reaching for a miraculous poke check.

It didn’t land. Keller kept the puck on her backhand and offered up a prayer at the pads of Desbiens.

The puck snuck under. Bedlam in Milan, bedlam in America. Blue jerseys streaked onto the ice in a joyful procession once more.

This year, unlike in Beijing, those blue sweaters will be adorned with accents of gold.