For much of Thursday’s final, it seemed Canada would refuse to relinquish the throne of Olympic women’s ice hockey to this younger American squad….
MILAN — With Olympic gold on the line, with just over two minutes to play in regulation of Thursday’s final match, it was the U.S. women’s hockey team’s two biggest stars who kept their dream alive.
The 22-year-old phenom Laila Edwards, a Day 1 starter in her first career Olympic Games, launched a rocket toward the goal, where the 36-year-old captain of Team USA, Hilary Knight, tipped the puck into the net — sending Milan’s Santagiulia Arena into roars and the gold medal match into overtime, where the Americans prevailed 2-1.
The equalizer by Knight, with an assist by Edwards and Megan Keller, represented the essence of this U.S. team — the energy of its young stars combined with the calm experience of its veteran leadership.
Then, just over four minutes into a thrilling, fast-paced overtime period, Keller was the hero, maneuvering the puck around Canadian defender Claire Thompson for the game-winner.
Coming into the gold medal match, the Americans hadn’t yet trailed in their entire Olympic run, in which they had outscored their opponents 31 to 1.
But Canada struck first with a shorthanded goal just 54 seconds into the second period, after a rare defensive lapse by 22-year-old U.S. star Laila Edwards allowed Canadian forward Laura Stacey to scoop up the puck and charge toward the goal before passing it across to teammate Kristin O’Neill, who finished neatly around the pads of U.S. goaltender Aerin Frenkel.
That set up a nerve-racking second and third period in which the U.S. players pressed repeatedly, desperately even, to keep alive their dreams of a gold medal — then, in the span of barely six minutes, Knight’s equalizer and Keller’s game-winner.
“Words can’t even articulate how I’m feeling right now. This is something I’ve wanted for my whole life and I finally got it,” said U.S. forward Hayley Scamurra. “It’s beautiful. I’m just so proud of being on this team.”
For decades, Canada had been the top dog of Olympic women’s ice hockey. Since the sport was added to the Winter Games in 1998, Canada has reached the gold medal match all eight times and won five of those.
The Americans won the first gold medal back in 1998, but it took 20 years to win a second — on a shootout, no less.
But things have changed dramatically over the past year. Since February 2025, the two teams have faced each other nine times — including last week in an Olympic group stage match — and the U.S. has won all but one.
At the Olympic preliminary match just nine days ago, the U.S. won 5-0, although Canada was playing without its captain and best player, Marie-Philip Poulin, who returned from injury to play in Thursday’s game.
Coming into the 2026 Games, Canada placed its Olympic bet on experienced players. The U.S. instead bet on youth development. The average age of the U.S. Olympic roster is under 27, while Canada’s roster, on average, is just about 30. Seven American players are still in college; Canada has zero.
Now, the Americans’ wager has paid off. Four of the team’s five leading scorers in Milan — including Edwards, defensemen Caroline Harvey and forwards Hannah Bilka and Abbey Murphy — are all 22, 23 or 24 years old.
“In my opinion, I think this is the best hockey team [that] women’s hockey has ever seen,” said U.S. forward Kelly Pannek. “Up and down the lineup in every single role, whether it was points on the board or penalty kills, power plays, you name it, everyone knew what their role was going into this and executed.”
Thursday’s final was the last Olympic game for Knight, the most accomplished hockey player in U.S. Olympic history. She has competed in five Olympic Games, winning two gold medals, including Thursday’s, and three silvers. Her equalizer late in the third period marked her 15th career Olympic goal, the most all-time of any U.S. women’s hockey player.
Knight’s stamp on women’s hockey extends beyond her Olympic records. She was key in the founding of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the most stable and financially successful such league to date, with eight teams now and expansion plans in the works.
In total, her legacy is not only one of her own past success, but a sustained future of success for the U.S. women’s national team, as more players have the genuine capability to pursue hockey professionally and continue development into their 20s and 30s.
“Simply put, we are not here without her,” said Heise. “Obviously, it’s sad to say that this might be her last one. We’re going to hopefully do it for her as well.”
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It was a thriller. At the Winter Olympics, the gold-medal women’s hockey match between the United States and Canada went to overtime, and the U.S. found a way to storm back and win. This was the tightest and toughest game for the U.S. at this Olympics. NPR’s Becky Sullivan was there at the final. She joins us now live from Milan. Hey, Beck.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: I’m buzzing, Mary Louise.
KELLY: I bet you are. What a total heart-stopper. For those of us who were stuck in the office and not swanking around in Milan, walk me through the gold-medal match.
SULLIVAN: (Laughter) Mary Louise, what a great game. Just to set this up for you – the Americans had come into this as the favorites, which actually is kind of a role reversal. Canada is, historically, the powerhouse of women’s hockey here at the Olympics. They’ve won five of the possible seven gold medals. The U.S. have only won two. But the Americans have a great team this year. They were the favorites tonight. And so it was really a shock, actually, when it was Canada who took the first lead. The two teams got off to a slow start and then Canada took the 1-0 lead on this short-handed goal that came out of a mistake by this young USA star, 22-year-old Laila Edwards. Canada was able to convert, take that 1-0 lead.
And then it was just two whole periods, pretty much, of just back and forth, super tense hockey until finally with two minutes remaining in regulation, the Team USA captain, the person that some people call the greatest women’s hockey player of all time, Hilary Knight, tipped the puck up and in over the arm of the Canadian goalie, Ann-Renee Desbiens, and sent it to overtime. And then the overtime period – it was thrilling, fast-paced. It’s a three-on-three format here at the Olympics. And at about four minutes into that, it was the American hero, Megan Keller, with this slick move. She just sent that puck like – whoop – past the Canadian defender, in between the legs of Desbiens for the win. It was just a thrill.
KELLY: Oh, I can just picture that poor goalie. I can picture you jumping up and down with excitement. It – I mean, it sounds like the U.S. women who we saw on the ice today looked totally different than the team we had seen on the ice…
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KELLY: …All Olympics long. Like, do we know what happened?
SULLIVAN: I just think for a lot of the game, I think that was true. I think maybe by the ends, they finally righted that ship, but I think that they – that you’re right. I mean, leading up into this gold-medal match, the U.S. had outscored their opponents 31-1 in this Olympic run. And so you might guess that they had never trailed before in a game until today in this Olympics. But I think Canada is just a really good team, and even though the U.S. had beaten them 5-0 in a preliminary game earlier in this Olympics, that was – that score wasn’t fair to them. They’re more talented than that, and today’s game was a little closer. Canada’s also a more experienced team. The U.S. is younger, and so I think there were some jitters for some of those American Olympic rookies in this big game, and so I think that maybe is what led to this.
KELLY: Well, and it’s interesting. I mean, you’re – as you’re making clear, Canada, historically, has been so dominant at the Winter Olympics…
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KELLY: …The women’s team in hockey. I mean, what would you say about how they played, the differences you were noticing between the two teams today?
SULLIVAN: Yeah. Well, I think coming into this tournament, Canada, you know, in formulating their team for the Olympics, had chosen to focus on experience, on veterans’ Olympic experience, especially. They won the gold medal in 2022. Sent a lot of those players back to this one. Whereas the U.S., I think, had kind of put their finger on the scale of youth, kind of developing younger players. A lot of the stars are 22, 23, 24. And it looks like that might work for Canada at the start of this game, but then, of course, the Americans came through, and I think that was the big difference tonight.
KELLY: So about 30 seconds left, but just give me some perspective. What’s this going to mean for women’s sports in the U.S.?
SULLIVAN: It’s huge. I mean, for women’s hockey, especially, it’s huge. And it goes to show how meaningful it’s been to have the flourishing of the Professional Women’s Hockey League – the PWHL – to have the college game in such a great place. So many young players who now have a professional career realistic ahead of them…
KELLY: Right.
SULLIVAN: …Means more development for this team, and I think, potentially, hopefully, for the U.S., more gold medals to come.
KELLY: That is NPR’s Becky Sullivan live in Milan. Thank you, Becky.
SULLIVAN: You’re welcome.
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Reporting from NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf contributed to this story. This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Alina Hartounian, John Ketchum and Sarah Handel.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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