Team USA Hockey scored a major victory when the women's team defeated Canada for the gold medal in overtime—though the game was tense. The team had a dominant run in the preliminaries, including beating Canada 5-0. But in the final game, things were hanging by a thread. For a majority of the showdown, Team USA was behind. But then, the team pulled ahead and emerged victorious with a final 2-1 score. It capped off their perfect 7-0 winning streak since the start of the Games. And the victory was so sweet—against what is the predominant hockey team in the world—that I nearly missed a teary-eyed exchange between several players.
I Was So Distracted by the U.S. Women's Hockey Team's Win That I Missed This Emotional, Tear-Filled Photo
Cue the waterworks
Published Feb 25, 2026
•4:02pm
David McIntyre/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
David McIntyre/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Following their win, the women's team took a page from many other Olympic athletes and broke down in tears as the crowd went wild. It was well deserved, as for a majority of the game, their fate was uncertain.
“We knew they were going to push in the first, we knew they were going to give everything they had,” U.S. forward Taylor Heise told The Athletic. “I think we had a moment of, ‘Oh s—.”
With 2 minutes and 4 seconds left in the game, captain Hilary Knight's goal tied the score and tipped the match into overtime. Teammate Megan Keller scored the tiebreaker, giving USA women's hockey an incredible cherry on top of a mind-boggling victory run.
The women's team has been on an incredible run, having not lost a major international game since losing to Canada 5-6 in overtime at the 2024 Women's World Championship. Team USA was last year's world champions, in addition to besting the Canadians in four Rivalry Series games.
Despite the track record, Canada was still the team to beat at this Olympics, with four consecutive Olympic golds from 2002 to 2014, and five in total during the eight games where women's hockey has been an Olympic sport. Canada is the 2022 Olympic champion, while Team USA last won in 2018, and 1998 before that. Congrats to the ladies—a well deserved win.
