Keller's overtime goal against Canada gives the US Olympic gold in women's ice hockey

The US women's national team was proclaimed Olympic champion in ice hockey after beating Canada 2-1 in the final, thanks to an overtime goal by Megan Keller. The Americans rallied after conceding first and eventually broke through despite a superb performance by the Canadian goaltender, who repeatedly frustrated the eventual champions.

This is the third gold for the USA since the women's category of the sport began to be part of the Olympic program in Nagano 1998. However, Canada remains the great champion, with the five golds in the rest of the editions (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2022).

Thursday's women's final was much more balanced than the game between the Americans and Canadians in the group stage, where the former largely dominated. This time it was Canada who took the lead thanks to a two-on-one that was successfully finished off by Kristin O'Neill.

Ann-Renée Desbiens' wall was not enough to lead Canada to gold

The Canadians then held on with their lead thanks to multiple saves by their goalkeeper, Ann-Renée Desbiens, whose performance repeatedly frustrated the U.S. team.

However, less than three minutes from the end of the match, a long-range shot by Leila Thompson was redirected by Hilary Knight, tipping the puck in to make it 1-1 on the scoreboard (58'). With this result, the game went to overtime, with an extra period of twenty minutes with three field players against three.

Just four minutes into the extra time period, Megan Keller was able to get in front of Desbiens and beat her to make it 2-1 (65').

USA-Canada, a classic in Olympic finals: seven out of eight

The United States and Canada have now met seven times in the Olympic women's ice hockey final. The only time the gold medal at a Games was not decided by a match between these two teams was in Turin 2006, when Canada beat Sweden.

In the bronze-medal match, played a few hours earlier, Switzerland defeated Sweden 2-1 in extra time, with Alina Müller scoring a goal.

The United States and Canada could also meet in the men's ice hockey final on Sunday. Both are through to the semi-finals and will face Slovakia and defending champion Finland on Friday in that round.