As the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games came to a close, U.S. hockey was having a historic weekend.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Feb. 19<\/a>, after going undefeated in their tournament, the U.S women\u2019s hockey team<\/a> faced their longtime Canadian rivals<\/a> to duke it out for gold. The game marked the third time the women\u2019s team would battle Canada in the Winter Olympics since the 2018 games<\/a> in PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, where they took home the church\u2019s money.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Kristin O\u2019Neil<\/a> was the first to break the ice with her breakaway just 54 seconds into the second period, scoring the first goal of the game. But with that fluke, American goaltender Aerin Frankel<\/a> shut the door, denying shot after shot \u2014 totaling a remarkable 30 saves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hilary Knight<\/a> later tied the game, keeping the U.S. hopes alive. Regulation then came and went as both teams entered overtime. Four minutes seven seconds into overtime, Megan Keller<\/a> slipped past Canadian defenders and secured the program\u2019s third gold medal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three days later, the U.S men\u2019s hockey team<\/a> followed suit with its own overtime game against the men\u2019s Canadian hockey team<\/a>. Initially considered underdogs in the matchup, the Americans were destined for success thanks to goaltender Connor Hellebuyck<\/a>, who made an astonishing 41 saves<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Matt Boldy\u2019s<\/a> first goal for the U.S. six minutes into the first period, the U.S. started off strong, only then to be stuck in a back-and-forth battle, which ended with less than two minutes left in the second period by Canada\u2019s Cale Makar<\/a> when he tied the game. With tension high going into overtime, the U.S.\u2019s Jack Hughes<\/a> left a few teeth on the ice in exchange for some Canadian tears, as he secured gold<\/a> for Team USA with a game-winning goal just one minute and 41 seconds into overtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n The medal, just like the women\u2019s team, was the program\u2019s third gold medal win, but the U.S. men\u2019s team hadn\u2019t won since the legendary \u201cMiracle on Ice<\/a>\u201d in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games against the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n Despite both teams\u2019 patriotism and display of elite athleticism, American politics soon grounded viewers back to reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following the men\u2019s victory, Kash Patel<\/a>, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made a surprise appearance in the locker room, celebrating with the players. And while some might see this as a wholesome moment \u2014 complete with Patel turning fraternal, spraying beer on the players and joining in the chants \u2014 others question the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The controversy only grew as President Donald Trump<\/a> phoned the men\u2019s team to personally congratulate them and invite the men to attend the State of the Union address as guests of honor. During the call, he said<\/a>, \u201cI must tell you, we\u2019re going to have to bring the women\u2019s team. I do believe I\u2019d probably be impeached if the women\u2019s team wasn\u2019t invited.\u201d<\/p>\n The comment quickly drew backlash online, with critics calling it dismissive and unnecessary \u2014 particularly given that the women had already secured their own gold medal days earlier without similar fanfare.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response, the women\u2019s team issued a statement thanking officials for the invitation but declining<\/a> due to previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, appearing on \u201cGood Morning America<\/a>,\u201d Jack Hughes and his brother Quinn Hughes<\/a> confirmed that the men would accept the president\u2019s invitation but shared their respect for the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games came to a close, U.S. hockey was having a historic weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-472706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116136137530686046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472706","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=472706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}