Megan Keller scored the gold-medal-winning goal 4:07 into overtime to lift the United States to a remarkable 2-1 victory over Canada for the Olympic title at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina on Thursday.
Keller took a long stretch pass and made a nifty deke through Claire Thompson before slipping the puck under Canadian goalie Ann-Rénee Desbiens for an instantly iconic golden goal. This is the third gold medal the American women have won at the Olympics, the first two coming at the 2022 and 1998 games.
Hilary Knight tied the game in dramatic fashion with 2:04 remaining and the goalie pulled, equalizing the score at one. She managed to finally beat the Canadian netminder Desbiens with a nifty deflection on a shot from Leila Edwards, forcing the game beyond 60 minutes.
The Canadians struck first with a short-handed goal early in the second period and were so close to riding that goal to victory. It appeared like they might until the final moments of the game when Knight struck for the Americans, sending the game into overtime, where they eventually won.
Canada opens the scoring while down a player
Goals were hard to come by in this game. Canada opened the scoring early in the second period on a short-handed rush, which Kristin O’Neill converted, but other than that, the first 40 minutes finished without scoring.
O’Neill took a pass from teammate Laura Stacey, pulled the puck across her body, and slid it into the gaping cage on the backhand.
That goal looked like it might be enough as Desbiens made several huge stops throughout the game to keep her team on top before the Americans finally broke through. The Canadian goalie kept her team in the game and almost willed her team to the gold medal.
Late game dramatics
With Canada leading by one late, American forward Britta Curl-Salemme took a two-minute penalty for boarding with 6:23 left in the third period.
While the Canadians didn’t score on that power play, it killed a few crucial minutes near the end of the game and took some of the wind out of Team USA’s sails. By the time Curl-Salemme returned to the ice, there were just a few minutes remaining. Both teams were throwing big hits in the final few minutes as the game got very physical.
With the clock ticking down, it looked like Canada was going to escape with the gold medal. However, Knight made sure that didn’t happen, scoring her 15th-ever goal at the Olympics, the most by any American player ever.
Keller then added her beautiful overtime goal to secure the gold medal for the Americans, a fitting end to a tournament in which they’ve been dominant throughout the entire thing. They allowed just two goals through seven games and besides the final, didn’t have any other close contests.
North American success continues
This was the eighth Olympics with women’s hockey, and no team other than Canada or the United States has ever won the gold medal. Only once did another nation, Sweden in 2006, win the silver medal.
The Americans beat the Canadians 5-0 in the preliminary round and won all four Rivalry Series games between the teams in 2025. However, they couldn’t continue the winning streak on the biggest stage in the gold medal game.
Switzerland finished with the bronze medal this year, beating Sweden 2-1 in overtime earlier in the day for third place.
