Megan Keller’s move on the Milan ice, in the women’s Olympic hockey gold medal game between the most heated of rivals, the United States and Canada, was one of the filthiest things you’ll ever see on a frozen surface. Beautiful, thrilling, absolute filth; something so dirty, so nasty, you’ll want to relive it over and over again, to appreciate it, and respect it. Even if you’re pulling for Canada, the victim of the American’s killer stickwork. Because as a Canadian, you love your national pastime. And Keller honored the hell out of it.
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Keller, in the fifth minute of sudden-death overtime on Thursday, received a long pass from Taylor Heise. It was the kind of pass that Olympic overtime rules—3 skaters versus 3 skaters instead of the usual 5 on 5, leaving more open space than a Saskatchewan prairie—encourage.
“Meg was flying up the ice, and she was calling for the puck,” says Heiss. “So I chucked it up to her.” Keller took the puck up the left side as Canada’s Claire Thompson charged towards her. Keller read Thompson’s movements like a physicist. As she flicked the puck past Thompson, who couldn’t stop her momentum, Keller at the same time skated around her. PhD-level juke job.
She then sealed the deal. Keller retrieved the pass to herself, and one-timed a backhander underneath Canadian keeper Ann-Renée Desbiens.
“Pretty sick move,” says Swiss bronze medalist Alina Müller, Keller’s teammate with the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
“Unbeliveable,” says Team USA’s Laila Edwards. “It doesn’t surprise me. Because I know she’s got those things up her sleeve.”
The goal gave the United States a 2-1 victory, and its third-ever women’s Olympic hockey gold medal. Either Canada or the U.S. has won every single Olympic gold since women’s hockey was introduced to the Games in 1998. Canada has 5, the U.S. 3. They’ve met in all but one final. The U.S. last won eight years ago, in PyeongChang, against—who else?—Canada.
Read more:‘Absolute War.’ Hilary Knight on the U.S.-Canada Women’s Hockey Rivalry and the 2026 Olympics
Kudos to both of these teams. They’re in the habit of delivering gold medal epics, and the 2026 version ranks right up there as one of the most intense sporting events one can witness. And though Milan’s Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena has been much maligned, for barely being ready in time for the hockey tournament, its acoustics met the moment.
Canada came into the game in an unfamiliar position: as the underdog. The U.S. had outscored its opponents 31-1 in the Milano Cortina Olympic tournament before this game. The team embarrassed Canada, 5-0, in the preliminary round, and swept the North American neighbor in four straight Olympic tune-ups.
But to no one’s surprise, Canada fought to prevent an American coronation. After a scoreless first period, the defending Olympic gold medalists, too prideful to roll over, got on the scoreboard first. Early in the second period, Kristin O’Nell converted a 2-on-1 opportunity to give Canada a 1-0 lead. In the hunt for their own goal, the Americans kept knocking on the door, but couldn’t break through. A Britta Curl-Salemme hit on Canada’s Erin Ambrose, with just over six minutes left in the game, charged the arena. The penalty felt like American frustration. But over the next two minutes, the United States locked in to kill Canada’s advantage, and kept pushing and pushing, and the noise grew louder and louder. Gold medal hockey sparks a beautiful sound.
With just over two minutes left, the United States pulled stalwart goaltender Aerin Frankel off the ice, for the 6-on-5 advantage. Off a faceoff, with just over two minutes remaining in the game, Edwards blasted the puck towards the Canadian net. U.S. captain Hilary Knight got a stick on it, producing enough misdirection to sneak it past Desbiens. Game tied, United States survival, pandemonium. Knight’s goal, in her fifth and last Olympics, gave her 15 career goals and 33 points in the Games, both new American Olympic records. “She’s the best player of all-time,” says U.S. defenseman Lee Steicklein.
Knight, in turn, gives her teammates their flowers. “This is the best U.S. hockey team I’ve ever been a part of,” she says.
“We’re going to win the game. It’s that simple,” Knight recalls thinking after her late-game score tied the game, at 1-1. “Here we go. This is ours.”
Knight didn’t only break individual records and win a second gold medal in the 2026 Games. She also proposed to Britanny Bowe, the U.S. speedskater, yesterday. The couple is now engaged. “I was more nervous for the proposal than I was for the gold medal game, to be honest,” Knight said. “My legs felt like jello.”
In overtime, Keller—a Michigan native who attended Boston College and was playing in her third Olympics—went to work. After the game, some American players said they hadn’t seen Keller’s goal, as it happened in a flash. They were too busy mobbing each other to immediately check their devices for a replay. “I’m very excited to get to my phone after this and really burn it into my memory,” says Heise.
Keller says she may have made that juke move in practice: a few of her U.S. teammates attest that they’ve seen it before. “I wasn’t really thinking, or had planned anything,” she said. When the United States last bested Canada and won gold in women’s hockey in PyeongChang, it did so in similarly memorable fashion. During a shootout, a dipsy-do from Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson gave the Americans the score that ultimately won them the gold. A coach had given that maneuver a name: the “Ooops … I Did It Again.”
Does Keller have a name for hers?
Not yet, she says.
Knight chimes in with a suggestion.
“The Megan Keller.”
That works.
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