MILAN (AP) \u2014 A last Olympic goal for Hilary Knight, a gold medal-winning overtime one for Megan Keller, and the Americans cemented their reputation as one of the most dominant women\u2019s hockey teams to take the ice.<\/p>\n
After romping through their first six outings at the Milan Cortina Games, the U.S. overcame the final test by rallying to beat Canada and earn its third gold medal with a 2-1 win Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team\u2019s got so much resolve. Never quit. Always ready to fight and go to battle,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a testament to the preparation of our group and the love that we have in that room, and the way we found a way to get the job done at the end of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight, appearing in her fifth and final Olympics, forced overtime by tipping in Laila Edwards\u2019 shot with 2:04 left in regulation \u2014 and with goalie Aerin Frankel pulled for an extra attacker. The goal was her 15th and 33rd point of her Olympic career, setting U.S. records for both categories.<\/p>\n
The sides were playing 3-on-3 to finish a game where fans alternated chants of \u201cUSA! and \u201cCa-na-da!\u201d Keller secured the win on a backhander 4:07 into overtime, breaking up the left wing and pushing past Claire Thompson, driving to the net and beating Ann-Renee Desbiens over her right pad to spark an emotional and teary-eyed celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m lost for words,\u201d Keller said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frankel stopped 30 shots.<\/p>\n
Kristin O\u2019Neill scored a short-handed goal for Canada and Desbiens finished with 31 saves.<\/p>\n
Canada pushed the U.S. to the brink just nine days after it was beaten 5-0 by the Americans in the preliminary round.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill\u2019s goal 54 seconds into the second period ended the Americans\u2019 shutout streak of 5 hours, 52 minutes and 17 seconds, dating to the second period of a 5-1 opening win over Czechia. The U.S. had not trailed in the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through ups and downs,\u201d Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin said. \u201cJust letting them know this does not define them. I\u2019m proud of them. They showed up. Sadly lost in overtime but keep their head high because it\u2019s truly an honor to be on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n
A fierce rivalry that began with the U.S. beating Canada to win gold at the 1998 Nagano Games \u2014 the first to feature women\u2019s hockey \u2014 continued living up to its billing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. also won gold in 2018 in Pyeongchang, while Canada has won the other five gold medals, and settled for its third silver.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s final marked the seventh of 12 Olympic meetings between the two nations to be decided by one goal and the third to go past regulation. And counting world championship play, the U.S. evened its record to 25-25 against Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got this,\u201d Edwards said, referring to the message delivered during intermission before overtime.<\/p>\n
And they did.<\/p>\n
A team featuring a mix of experience and talented and speedy youth delivered on the vision coach John Wroblewski instilled upon taking over four years ago, months after the U.S. lost the gold-medal game to Canada in Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, I think this is the best hockey team women\u2019s hockey has ever seen,\u201d Kelly Pannek said, noting how the Americans overcame adversity against their fiercest rival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a part of being a champion, right?\u201d Pannek said. \u201cWe knew they were going to respond in the way that they do. And they gave us everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the final couldn\u2019t have been closer, the Americans were dominant in Milan, going 7-0 and outscoring their opponents by a combined 33-2.<\/p>\n
For then defending Olympic champion Canadians, this was considered a last hurrah for their aging core led by Poulin, aka \u201cCaptain Clutch\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Poulin, who missed two games with a right knee injury, declined to discuss her Olympic future.<\/p>\n
Meantime, many of her teammates were devastated by the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to process right now,\u201d 37-year-old defender Jocelyne Larocque said. \u201cWe always had the belief that we could win. I love this group. I love this team. I\u2019m proud of everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Canada overcame questions about its age and recent sluggish performances by outshooting the U.S. 8-6 in the first period and then taking the lead with O\u2019Neill converting Laura Stacey\u2019s pass on a 2-on-1 break. The Canadians kept pressing their attack and had several chances in overtime.<\/p>\n
A minute before Keller\u2019s goal, Sarah Fillier moved up the right wing only to have her shot stopped by Frankel, with the puck landing in the crease.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s overtime. First goal wins. You\u2019ve got to bury it when you have the chance,\u201d Filler said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough. You want to win a gold medal with that group. It\u2019s a special group, a lot of veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Americans extended their winning streak against Canada to eight. It began with two wins at the world championships in April, including the gold medal game. The U.S. then swept a four-game exhibition series by a combined margin of 26-7.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Alina Muller scored 9:09 into overtime for her second bronze-medal clinching goal in Switzerland’s 2-1 win over Sweden 2-1. Muller also scored Switzerland’s decisive goal in a 4-3 win over Sweden in 2014. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Olympic coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 A last Olympic goal for Hilary Knight, a gold medal-winning overtime one for Megan Keller,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[37837,1251,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-464673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116103988792461599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}