{"id":464059,"date":"2026-02-20T01:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:18:13","slug":"team-usa-wins-olympic-gold-over-canada-in-womens-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464059\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA Wins Olympic Gold Over Canada in Women’s Hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megan Keller\u2019s move on the Milan ice, in the women\u2019s Olympic hockey gold medal game between the most heated of rivals<\/a>, the United States and Canada, was one of the filthiest things you\u2019ll ever see on a frozen surface. Beautiful, thrilling, absolute filth; something so dirty, so nasty, you\u2019ll want to relive it over and over again, to appreciate it, and respect it. Even if you\u2019re pulling for Canada, the victim of the American\u2019s killer stickwork. Because as a Canadian, you love your national pastime. And Keller honored the hell out of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keller, in the fifth minute of sudden-death overtime on Thursday, received a long pass from Taylor Heise. It was the kind of pass that Olympic overtime rules\u20143 skaters versus 3 skaters instead of the usual 5 on 5, leaving more open space than a Saskatchewan prairie\u2014encourages.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeg was flying up the ice, and she was calling for the puck,\u201d says Heiss. \u201cSo I chucked it up to her.\u201d Keller took the puck up the left side as Canada’s Claire Thompson charged towards her. Keller read Thompson\u2019s movements like a physicist. As she flicked the puck past Thompson, who couldn\u2019t stop her momentum, Keller at the same time skated around her. PhD-level juke job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She then sealed the deal. Keller retrieved the pass to herself, and one-timed a backhander underneath Canadian keeper Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty sick move,\u201d says Swiss bronze medalist Alina M\u00fcller, Keller\u2019s teammate with the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbeliveable,\u201d says Team USA\u2019s Laila Edwards<\/a>. \u201cIt doesn’t surprise me. Because I know she’s got those things up her sleeve.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal gave the United States a 2-1 victory, and its third-ever women\u2019s Olympic hockey gold medal. Either Canada or the U.S. has won every single Olympic gold since women\u2019s hockey was introduced to the Games in 1998. Canada has 5, the U.S. 3. They\u2019ve met in all but one final. The U.S. last won eight years ago, in PyeongChang, against\u2014who else?\u2014Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more:\u2018Absolute War.\u2019 Hilary Knight on the U.S.-Canada Women\u2019s Hockey Rivalry and the 2026 Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

Kudos to both of these teams. They\u2019re in the habit of delivering gold medal epics, and the 2026 version ranks right up there as one of the most intense sporting events one can witness. And though Milan\u2019s Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena<\/a> has been much maligned, for barely being ready in time for the hockey tournament, its acoustics met the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada came into the game in an unfamiliar position: as the underdog. The U.S. had outscored its opponents 31-1 in the Milano Cortina Olympic tournament before this game. The team embarrassed Canada, 5-0, in the preliminary round, and swept the North American neighbors in four straight Olympic tune-ups.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But to no one\u2019s surprise, Canada fought to prevent an American coronation. After a scoreless first period, the defending Olympic gold medalists, too prideful to roll over, got on the scoreboard first. Early in the second period, Kristin O\u2019Nell converted a 2-on-1 opportunity to give Canada a 1-0 lead. In the hunt for their own goal, the Americans kept knocking on the door, but couldn\u2019t break through. A Britta Curl-Salemme hit on Canada\u2019s Erin Ambrose, with just over six minutes left in the game, charged the arena. The penalty felt like American frustration. But over the next two minutes, the United States locked in to kill Canada\u2019s advantage, and kept pushing and pushing, and the noise grew louder and louder. Gold medal hockey sparks a beautiful sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With just over two minutes left, the United States pulled stalwart goaltender Aerin Frankel off the ice, for the 6-on-5 advantage. Off a faceoff, with just over two minutes remaining in the game, Edwards blasted the puck towards the Canadian net. U.S. captain Hilary Knight<\/a> got a stick on it, producing enough misdirection to sneak it past Desbiens. Game tied, United States survival, pandemonium. Knight\u2019s goal, in her fifth and last Olympics, gave her 15 career goals and 33 points in the Games, both new American Olympic records. \u201cShe\u2019s the best player of all-time,\u201d says U.S. defenseman Lee Steicklein.<\/p>\n

Knight, in turn, gives her teammates their flowers. \u201cThis is the best U.S. hockey team I\u2019ve ever been a part of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to win the game. It\u2019s that simple,\u201d Knight recalls thinking after her late-game score tied the game, at 1-1. \u201cHere we go. This is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight didn\u2019t only break individual records and win a second gold medal in the 2026 Games. She also proposed to Britanny Bowe,<\/a> the U.S. speedskater, yesterday. The couple is now engaged<\/a>. \u201cI was more nervous for the proposal than I was for the gold medal game, to be honest,\u201d Knight said. \u201cMy legs felt like jello.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In overtime, Keller\u2014a Michigan native who attended Boston College and was playing in her third Olympics\u2014went to work. After the game, some American players said they hadn\u2019t seen Keller\u2019s goal, as it happened in a flash. They were too busy mobbing each other to immediately check their devices for a replay. \u201cI\u2019m very excited to get to my phone after this and really burn it into my memory,\u201d says Heise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keller says she may have made that juke move in practice: a few of her U.S. teammates attest that they\u2019ve seen it before. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking, or had planned anything,\u201d she said. When the United States last bested Canada and won gold in women\u2019s hockey in PyeongChang, it did so in similarly memorable fashion. During a shootout, a dipsy-do from Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson<\/a> gave the Americans the score that ultimately won them the gold. A coach had given that maneuver a name: the \u201cOoops \u2026 I Did It Again.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Does Keller have a name for hers?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not yet, she says.<\/p>\n

Knight chimes in with a suggestion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Megan Keller.\u201d<\/p>\n

That works.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n