"About two minutes into the shambolic three-on-three overtime format that decides Olympic hockey games, the Americans saw their lives flash before their eyes. The player who has tormented the U.S. women's hockey program for years had the puck streaking down the right wing, and she fired an off-angle shot that had no real business going into the net. But because it was Marie-Philip Poulin, of course it was going in."
"The Americans had outscored their opponents 31-1 in their first five games of the Olympic women's hockey tournament. One of those games was a 5-0 destruction of the same Canadian team that was now threatening them. The Americans had been the best team in the world for a while but were lugging around infinite mental baggage from past Olympics losses to the country that invented hockey. In this Olympic final, they went down 1-0, then pressed for nearly 40 minutes to find a tying goal."
Team USA dominated early in the tournament, outscoring opponents 31-1 and previously beating Canada 5-0. The final rekindled long-standing Olympic mental baggage from past losses to Canada. The Americans fell behind 1-0 and pressed for nearly 40 minutes before captain Hillary Knight tied the game with a tip-in with 124 seconds remaining. In three-on-three overtime, a format that feels ill-suited to a gold-medal game, defenseman Megan Keller carried in and scored a sudden-death goal to secure the United States the Olympic title. The result felt both bizarre and fitting given the stakes.
Read at Slate Magazine
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