The hockey... it's been incredible. A day after three of the four quarterfinals in the men's Olympic tournament went to overtime, the women's medal round took center stage in Milan and delivered an instant classic of its own in the gold medal game.
Team USA, which had dominated the tournament to the tune of a 31-1 goal differential through its first six games, found itself facing adversity for the first time on Thursday, trailing Canada 1-0 late in the third period. But then two of their veterans stepped up in the clutch, with forward Hilary Knight tying the game with 2:04 left in regulation before defenseman Megan Keller scored the gold medal winner 4:07 into overtime.
It was the third Olympic gold all-time for the American women, having also won in 1998 and 2018. This was the third time in the last four Olympic finals that the USA and Canada went to overtime or a shootout.
From a local angle, the PWHL's Boston Fleet had their fingerprints all over not just the gold medal game, but also the bronze medal game earlier in the day Thursday.
Keller, the overtime hero who also assisted on Knight's tying goal, has been with the Fleet since the PWHL's inaugural season in 2023-24. She led all Americans in ice time in the gold medal game, playing 25:13.
USA goalie Aerin Frankel is also an original member of the Fleet. She was spectacular Thursday and all tournament long, stopping 30 of 31 shots in the gold medal game and finishing the tournament with a ridiculous .980 save percentage in five starts.
Keller and Frankel both played their college hockey in Boston as well -- Keller at Boston College from 2014-19, and Frankel at Northeastern from 2017-22.
Knight, the team captain who became the United States' all-time leading goal-scorer at the Olympics with her tying goal, also has extensive Boston ties. She played for the CWHL's Boston Blades from 2012-15, the NWHL's Boston Pride from 2015-17, and then the Boston Fleet for their first two seasons from 2023-25 before moving to the expansion Seattle Torrent this season.
In the bronze medal game earlier in the day, it was Boston Fleet forward and Northeastern product Alina Muller who scored the overtime winner for Switzerland in a 2-1 win over Sweden. It was Muller's second Olympic bronze, as she also helped Switzerland win one back in 2014 when she was just 15 years old.
The Fleet, who also had defenseman Haley Winn on Team USA, are currently in first place in the PWHL with an 8-2-2-2 record (8 regulation wins, 2 OT wins, 2 OT losses, 2 regulation losses). They return to action after the Olympic break on Feb. 28 in Ottawa.