It was the two teams’ seventh time facing off in the Olympic gold medal game since women’s hockey debuted at the Winter Games.
MILAN, Italy — The United States is golden once again in women’s hockey, as Team USA beat Canada on Thursday in the gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Games.
The final score was 2-1 in overtime.
The women’s gold medal hockey game between Canada and the United States started exactly how we thought it would. The game had an intensity you only see during championship tilts.
It was the seventh gold-medal game in eight Olympics for the border rivals since women’s hockey debuted in 1998. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, with Canada won the other five tournaments, including during their last matchup at the 2022 Games.
In the first period, Canada dominated much of the zone time. They ended the period with eight shots on goal, but they didn’t have many “Grade A” scoring opportunities.
The Canadians saw themselves get two power plays in the first period, but the United States was able to kill off both. Two penalties in one period were very uncharacteristic of the United States women.
The United States women mustered six shots on goal during the first period, but it was their first time this tournament not scoring in the first period. With just under 20 seconds left in the period, the United States drew a hooking penalty. They carried over 1:45 of power play time into the second period.
The second period did not start as the United States wanted at all. Kristin O’Neill from Canada got her stick on a short-handed breakaway less than a minute into the period and buried it for a 1-0 lead. The goal was the first the United States gave up in over 350 minutes of tournament game play.
The next fifteen minutes of the period saw the United States start to play a little better. They weren’t able to score, but their shots and good looks at the net increased.
With just around five minutes left in the second period, Canada turned things up a bit. They dominated shots on goal and time in the offensive zone, making the American goaltender make several top-notch saves.
The rest of the period saw back-and-forth action, but no one was able to score.
The United States notched 14 shots, ending the second period with 20, while Canada had thirteen shots on goal, ending the period with 21.
In a second intermission interview, Team USA captain Hilary Knight said, “We have to stick to our game plan and turn up the dial.”
The third period began with more even, back-and-forth action between the two rivals. The United States mounted several rushes in the first half of the period, but they were all stopped by Canada’s goaltender.
The United States was called for a major boarding penalty with 6:23 left in the game. Referees reviewed the call and downgraded it to a two-minute minor boarding penalty. The U.S. women kept their fantastic penalty killing alive, eating up the penalty with relative ease.
The United States women pulled their goalie for a sixth-attacker with just under two and a half minutes. It only took twenty seconds for U.S. captain Hilary Knight to tip a shot from the point past the Canadian goalie. The goal gave her the most all-time goals and all-time points by an American woman in the Olympics.
The rest of the game was dominated by the American women who almost ended the game two separate times, but were foiled by the Canadian goalie.
Canada notched 29 shots on goal in regulation, while the United States had 28 shots in regulation.
The 3-on-3 overtime started with the Americans winning possession of the puck. Canada did a great job keeping the U.S. women outside, where they are much less dangerous.
Canada had a breakaway one minute into overtime, but it was stopped by the U.S. goaltender.
Play continued for several minutes at the frenetic pace only seen in overtime of a gold medal game. Four minutes into the overtime period, United States’ Megan Keller dangled the puck behind the last person on defense for Canada and was able to lift the puck into the net for the win.
Going into the game, the Americans had dominated the tournament by going 6-0 and outscoring their opponents by a combined margin of 31-1.
The U.S. never trailed or tied after 0-0, and was in position to become the third women’s team to do so over the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010. The Americans also extended their shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, going back to Czechia’s Barbora Jurickova beating Frankel on a breakaway in the second period of a tournament-opening 5-1 win.
Canada won five of its six games, with its only loss to the U.S., 5-0 in the preliminary round. They beat their other opponents by a combined margin of 21-3.
But the Canadians had their struggles during the tournament, as captain Marie-Philip Poulin missed two games — including the loss to the U.S. — with a right knee injury before returning for a 5-1 win over Germany in the quarterfinals.
The game could be the last meeting between the two teams’ long-time stars: Poulin, nicknamed “Captain Clutch,” and U.S. captain Hilary Knight, who had already announced her fifth Olympics will be her final one.
Earlier Thursday, Sweden and Switzerland played for bronze in a rematch of their meeting at the 2014 Sochi Games, with Switzerland taking home the bronze.