MILAN — Hilary Knight, of course.
It just has to be.
As the clock ticked down — and as did Team USA’s gold-medal dreams after a lopsided win in six lopsided games at the Winter Olympics — the face of U.S. women’s ice hockey emerged one day after her engagement to Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe, who added to her future Hall of Fame legacy. Knight closed the chapter on a remarkable Olympic career by saving her teammates and her beloved team and country.
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“Legends do legendary things,” said young Abby Murphy.
One hundred and twenty-four seconds before Canada’s upset win, Knight sent the game into overtime with a quintessential Hilary Knight goal.
“Poetic,” Kendall Coyle-Schofield said after winning her second gold medal.
It won’t be considered the prettiest goal of the 36-year-old Cavalier’s career, which is why it was so perfect. It wasn’t an end-to-end rush like Megan Keller’s, a breakaway, or an overtime game-winner that turned defenders into pretzels, which wouldn’t have been possible if Knight hadn’t come out in the clutch.
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No, it was an exemplary redirection of nuts and bolts, a drive to the net, and a final goal — in fact, Knight’s record-breaking 15th goal and 33rd point of his five-Olympic career.
Knight currently holds the U.S. Olympic all-time scoring record.
“She’s the leader of our team, heartbeat,” Keller said after scoring her “golden goal,” which gave the U.S. its third gold medal in women’s ice hockey and its first since 2018. She has been the voice of women’s hockey in the United States for many years. She has the record to prove it, the gold medal. Without her, we wouldn’t be where we are today. I can’t say enough good things about her and to end her Olympic career this way, I’m so happy for her.
Team USA got a much-needed timeout with 2:23 left in regulation, tying the game in the offensive zone and going into a TV timeout.
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“‘Blackout’ is perfect,” says John Wroblewski Competitor. “What time. I know what’s going to happen.”
Wroblewski, the national team coach who has contributed to this special moment for four years, believes it is time to pull out Aerin Frankel, who has excelled in many game-saving performances, as an extra attacker. Nineteen seconds later, Keller passed the puck to Leila Edwards, who shot, and Knight tied the score with a shot.
“Going back to the bench, I remember Wobb drafting it, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is our moment,'” Knight said.
“I’m extremely honored to be even a small part of what Hillary has accomplished,” Edwards said. “It’s a blessing to learn from her every day.”
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Looking back as Edwards’ shot kissed her blade, Knight had no idea it would be the fairytale ending to her Olympic career when she saw the first puck of the game finally get past the stubborn Ann-Renee Desbiance and was ecstatic.
No. not at all.
The Seattle Flood captain isn’t thinking about himself. What was going through her mind was: “We’re going to win the game.”
“It’s that simple,” she said. “You never want to run out the clock, especially against a great team. Once we found the net, I thought, ‘Here we go, this is ours.'” When Meg got there, I knew the puck was about to go into the back of the net. It’s a special feeling. It’s a rare feeling. But you get that on this team. “
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As the final seconds of the third period wound down, Team USA players left the ice and headed to the locker room. They have 18 minutes to prepare for a sudden-death three-on-three.
In other words, teammates say, there’s plenty of time for an epic cavalier speech.
“You have no idea what she did for us,” Murphy said. “So much faith was just instilled.”
What did Knight say to hype up American women?
Knight looked at Keller during the postgame press conference and asked for help because she really couldn’t remember. Finally, the light bulb went off.
“Who’s going to be the hero?” Knight repeated. “We need heroes. Heroes are in this room. … Meg is our hero. I should say, heroine.”
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What a victory it was, as Canada bravely pushed the U.S. to its limits, despite a strong team that had knocked out five opponents in a row and finished the tournament on a 7-0 run and outscored those seven teams by a whopping 33-2 score. However, if Knight hadn’t perfectly placed the stick in the spot where Wroblewski told her to stand, Gold might have avoided both the Special Forces and the famous Captain America.
“She’s very clutch,” guard Caroline Harvey said. “I mean, you can count on her in any situation, like, she’s going to get the job done. Obviously she did it in the most critical moments. You know she’s going to do that for us.”
Knight shook her head and reiterated that this was indeed her last Olympics.
“I personally had a really good week,” she said. “It’s been an incredible journey. I got to soak it all in because this room is so special. This team is so special. This is the best USA Hockey team I’ve ever been a part of.”
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Knight was alluding to something personal: The morning before she won gold, she proposed to her longtime partner Bowie. She thought it would be appropriate to do so at the Olympics, as the couple met at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and started dating after the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“Riding this amazing Olympic wave with the people I love, including our team and Brittany, supporting her and cheering her on, I think I was more nervous about the proposal than the gold medal game,” she said. “My legs felt like jelly.”
Knight said the anticipation of her program put pressure on her entire game. She just wanted it to end. But because of Bowe’s speedskating schedule, it made sense to do it the morning before her gold medal match.
So Knight got down on one knee, got a big “yes,” and then, “somewhat naively,” decided to put the photos and videos on social media, put away his phone, and start practicing Wednesday morning.
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“She didn’t tell any of us,” Keller said.
After practice, Knight walked into the locker room and her U.S. teammates started playing Bruno Mars’ song “Marry You” after learning the news on Instagram.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Knight said. “It’s incredible to be able to celebrate these different milestones with this team. I don’t want to put any more pressure on us as we go into this game.”
So she proposed, then just focused on Thursday’s game. Bowie came to the gold medal game to support Knight. Knight will run in her fiancée’s 1500m race on Friday to support Bowe.
“Hillary always goes out with a bang,” Coyne Schofield said. “From offers that made me fall off my chair to her record-breaking goals. I mean, you couldn’t have scripted it better. Obviously, to get another gold medal for her, happy for her. The greatest to do that, you really couldn’t have scripted it better.”
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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