by The United States women’s ice hockey team went undefeated during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics to bring home the gold medal on Thursday. After a suspenseful final game against Canada, the US women secured a 2-1 overtime victory to stand atop the podium. It was a fitting finish for the record-breaking team whose dominance defined the tournament from start to finish.
Neither the United States nor Canada was able to add a mark to the board in the opening frame, but both teams served penalties. Abbey Murphy served the first two-minute penalty for the US for too many players on the ice at 5:33. Joy Dunne was awarded a tripping penalty at 15:05 before Canada served a hooking penalty at 19:45 as the first period ended.
Canada was quick to score in the middle frame at 0:54 while down a player, to put them ahead by one. The final frame started tense before Britta Curl earned a boarding penalty at 13:37. The US took a chance and removed goalkeeper Aerin Frankel at 17:37 to have an extra attacker on the ice. Hilary Knight took advantage of the situation to tie the game at 17:56 with help from Laila Edwards and Megan Keller before Frankel was put back into the goal.
Megan Keller scored the game-winning goal at 4:07 into overtime with an assist from Taylor Heise. Aerin Frankel saved a total of 30 of the 31 shots on goal on Thursday to help secure the gold for the US.
The US men’s hockey team will take on Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday, February 20, at 3:10 p.m. ET. The game can be viewed on NBC or streamed on Peacock. The men are striving to match the women’s energy and bring home another gold medal for the United States.
Image sourced via Google Images.
