The U.S. women’s hockey rally in Milan on Thursday shocked Canada and won the gold medal with record-breaking viewership.
NBC announced that approximately 5.3 million people watched the game on USA Network and Peacock, making it the most-watched women’s hockey game on record. The game also peaked at about 7.7 million viewers in overtime.
It’s also part of NBC’s big Olympic Day. The network announced Thursday’s average total audience of about 26.7 million viewers, the largest weekday audience for a Winter Olympics since 2014. This is also the 14th consecutive day that the number of Olympic viewers has exceeded 20 million.
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After a goal late in the third period sent the game into overtime, Megan Keller waved past Canada’s Claire Thompson and snuck the puck between the legs of goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens to officially declare the U.S. victory.
Knight now becomes the all-time leading scorer in U.S. women’s Olympic hockey history with her 15th career goal.
“There’s no way we’re losing this game,” Knight said. “That’s it. It’s that simple. We have some great heavyweights on the ice.
“I knew we were going to have the puck, so I just had to find a spot in front of the net.”
The U.S. men’s team will try to tie their lead in Sunday’s gold medal game against Canada. On Friday, it was the first final since the 2010 Olympics.