MILAN — Of course it was Hilary Knight.
It just had to be.
With the clock ticking away — as was the Americans’ gold-medal dream after they had steamrolled the competition over six one-sided games in these Winter Olympics — it was the face of U.S. women’s hockey, one day after getting engaged to Olympic speedskater Brittany Bowe, who added to her future Hall of Fame legacy. Knight closed the chapter on an extraordinary Olympic career by rescuing her teammates and her beloved team and nation.
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“Legends do legendary things,” youngster Abbey Murphy said.
One hundred twenty-four seconds away from a Canadian upset victory, it was Knight who forced overtime with a typical Hilary Knight goal.
“Poetic,” Kendall Coyle Schofield, after winning her second gold medal, said.
This won’t go down as the prettiest goal of the 36-year-old Knight’s career, which is why it was so perfect. It wasn’t an end-to-end rush, a breakaway or a dipsy-doodle, turn-the-defender-into-a-pretzel highlight-reel overtime winner like Megan Keller scored, one that would have been impossible had Knight not come through in the clutch.
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No, this was a nuts and bolts, go-to-the-net-front, exemplary redirection for the final goal — a record-breaking 15th goal and 33rd point, in fact — of Knight’s five-time Olympic career.
Knight now holds the American all-time scoring record at the Olympics.
“She’s the leader of our group, the heartbeat,” Keller said after scoring her own “Golden Goal” to deliver the United States its third women’s gold and first since 2018. “She’s been the face of U.S. women’s hockey for years. She’s got the records to prove it, the gold medals. We don’t get here without her. I can’t say enough great things about her, and to cap off her Olympic career in this fashion, just so happy for her.”
The U.S. got a much-needed stoppage with 2:23 left in regulation, an offensive-zone draw and a TV timeout.
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“The ‘Power Break’ was perfect,” John Wroblewski told The Athletic. “What timing. I knew what was going to happen.”
Wroblewski, the national team’s coach during four years of building to this special moment, decided it was the right time to pull Aerin Frankel, who had been brilliant with several game-saving stops, for an extra attacker. Nineteen seconds later, Keller swung a puck over to Laila Edwards, who unleashed a shot that Knight tipped for the tying goal.
“Going back to the bench, I remember Wrobo drawing it up and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is our moment,’” Knight said.
“Just to even be a very small part of what Hilary’s accomplished, I’m so honored,” Edwards said. “And to learn from her every day, it’s just been such a blessing.”
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When Knight looked behind after Edwards’ shot kissed her blade, after she saw that first puck of the game finally get past a stubborn Ann-Renée Desbiens and she erupted in euphoria, it never even crossed Knight’s mind that this was a fairy-tale ending for her Olympic career.
Nope. Not at all.
The Seattle Torrent captain wasn’t thinking about herself. What did pop in her mind was: “We’re gonna win the game.”
“It was just that simple,” she said. “You never want to run out of time, especially with a great team. Finding the back of the net, I was like, ‘Here we go, this is ours.’ When Meg walked there, I knew the puck was going in the back of the net. It’s a special feeling. It’s a rare feeling. But you get that with this group.”
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As the final seconds of the third period evaporated, the American players left the ice and went to their locker room. They had 18 minutes to get ready for sudden-death three-on-three.
In other words, plenty of time for an epic Knight speech, teammates said.
“You guys have no idea what she does for us,” Murphy said. “Just instilled so much belief.”
What did Knight say to hype up the American women?
Knight looked at Keller during the postgame news conference and asked for help because she honestly couldn’t remember. Finally, the light bulb went off.
“Who’s gonna be the hero?” Knight repeated. “We need the hero. The hero’s in this room. … And Meg was our hero. Heroine, I should say.”
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What a victory, as Canada valiantly pushed the United States to the limit despite the fact that this juggernaut had shut out five opponents in a row and wound up 7-0, outscoring those seven teams an amazing 33-2. Yet if not for Knight’s perfectly placed stick in the exact spot Wroblewski told her to stand, gold would have evaded this special team and renowned U.S. captain.
“She’s so clutch,” defender Caroline Harvey said. “I mean, you can depend on her in any situation, like, she’s going to get it done. And obviously she did in the most crucial of moments. You know she’ll do that for us.”
Knight shook her head and reiterated that this was indeed her final Olympic game.
“I’ve had a heckuva week personally,” she said. “It’s been an incredible ride. I have to soak this all in because this room is so special. This team is so special. This is the best U.S. hockey team I’ve ever been a part of.”
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What Knight was alluding to on the personal front: the morning before winning gold she had proposed to her longtime partner, Bowe. She thought doing so at the Olympics was appropriate since the couple met at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang and started dating after the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
“Riding this amazing Olympic wave with people I love, both on our team and Brittany and supporting her and cheering her on, I think I was more nervous for the proposal than I was for the gold medal game,” she said. “My legs felt like Jell-O.”
Knight said the anticipation of what she was planning was weighing on her all tournament. She just wanted to get it over with. But because of Bowe’s speedskating schedule, it just made sense to do it the morning before her gold medal game.
So Knight got down on one knee, got a big “yes,” and then, being “a little naïve,” decided to put the pictures and videos on social media, put her phone away and practice Wednesday morning.
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“She didn’t tell any of us,” Keller said.
After practice, Knight walked into the locker room and her U.S. teammates, after learning of the news on Instagram, began playing the Bruno Mars song “Marry You.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Knight said. “To be able to celebrate these different milestones with this group is incredible. I didn’t want to put more pressure on us when we were navigating this tournament.”
So she proposed, then focused solely on Thursday’s game. Bowe came to the gold medal game to support Knight. Knight will be at her now-fiancée’s 1500m race Friday to support Bowe.
“Hilary always goes out with a bang,” Coyne Schofield said. “From the proposal that had me falling off a chair to her record-breaking goal. I mean, you can’t script it any better. Obviously, getting another gold medal for her, so happy for her. The greatest to do it and you literally can’t script it any better.”
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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