Maeve Bidonde, Arts Editor
On Thursday the 19th, the USA Women’s Hockey team faced off against Canada’s Women’s Hockey team in the Olympics for the gold medal. Prior to the gold medal game, USA Women’s Hockey was dominating the sport with win after win taking them to finals. Throughout their gold medal run, the USA team outscored their opponents by 30, only allowing one single goal to be scored against them. NPR writes that the Canadian and the USA played each other before the gold medal match up and the USA came out on top shutting out Canada with a score of 5-0. The Canadians secured a spot in the gold medal match after beating Switzerland in a semifinal game.
Hilary Knight, part of the USA team who has been affectionately nicknamed “Captain America,” came to the 2026 Olympics with previous medals, a record, and plans to retire after her time in Milan. Knight holds one gold medal, three silver medals, almost every Hockey record a person could think of, and 10 world titles. Canada’s superstar Marie-Philip Poulin who earned the nickname “Captain Clutch” was responsible for the game winning goal in three previous Olympic wins in 2010, 2014, and 2022. The last time the USA and Canada faced off for gold in 2022 in Beijing Canada won.
The matchup itself had fans biting their nails as Canada’s forward Kristin O’Neill was able to score a goal under a minute into the second period. That gave the Canadians hope that they would secure a sixth gold medal as the USA scrambled to respond with a goal of their own to tie things up. Then with about two minutes and four seconds left in the match Knight miraculously scored a goal sending the match into overtime to the joy of Americans and dismay of Canadians.
Overtime in the Olympics was sudden death with the next goal taking home the gold medal for Women’s Ice Hockey. Both teams were desperate to win but only one could win and that was the USA. USA player Megan Keller was able to score the game winning goal just over four minutes into the sudden death period.
According to NBC Olympics, when asked about the goal Keller said, “I was just trying to make a move, take a chance, I was trying to win, not play to not lose. That’s what we talked about in the locker room.”
After the gold medal was secured, it was time to name the Olympic’s Most Valuable Player and Best Defender. Those titles went to USA’s Caroline Harvey who finished the current Olympic run with nine points tied with Keller. Harvey was also a huge part of every single USA win this year.
Canadian Captain Marie-Philip Poulin was asked about the loss and she said, “We came out, we wanted to play, we wanted to make it difficult for them and we did,” adding, “Honestly, we knew it was going to be a battle, it was going to be up and down, and it was.” She was also proud of how her team played even if they lost.
As for Hilary Knight she goes into retirement not only as a two time Olympic champion but also as the most decorated American Hockey Player in Olympic History. Next time the Winter Olympics come around the USA Women’s Hockey team will have a title to defend.
Leave a Reply