Us Women's Hockey Final: Knight's Farewell Meets Poulin's Record-Breaking Surge
Us Women's Hockey will take center ice on Thursday (ET) as the United States and Canada meet in a gold medal game that combines a superstar farewell with a historic scoring milestone.
Us Women's Hockey: Knight's swan song and Poulin's new milestone
Hilary Knight has announced that this will be her fifth and final Olympics, and she has framed the tournament as an opportunity for a "storybook ending" to her Olympic career. Knight enters the final with a legacy of leadership and a statistical footprint that ties her for the all-time Olympic goals and points lead for the U. S. side, and teammates and opponents alike describe her as someone who can change the tone of a game.
On the other side, Marie-Philip Poulin has rewritten the Olympic record book during this tournament. She became the all-time leading goal scorer in women's Olympic hockey when she scored what was her 19th career goal in the semifinal, and she has since extended that mark to 20 goals, becoming the first woman to reach the milestone. That achievement adds dramatic weight to the final: one team seeking a fairy-tale sendoff for a cherished captain, the other buoyed by a player now atop the sport's Olympic scoring list.
Rivalry heat, tournament context and what to watch on Thursday (ET)
This matchup is the latest chapter in a rivalry that has dominated Olympic women's hockey since the sport's introduction as an Olympic event in 1998. Canada and the United States have combined for every gold medal in the event's history, with Canada holding five golds to the U. S. 's two, and the two nations have met in six of the seven previous gold medal games; this will be their seventh Olympic final against one another.
The animus between the teams has been intense in recent years. When players met at a Four Nations Face-Off event in 2025, three fistfights erupted in the first nine seconds of a game — a striking indicator of how heated encounters have become. That edge is present again in Milan-Cortina, where both teams have kept the gold-medal goal in focus: Canada arrives off a previous Olympic gold, while the U. S. left the last Games with silver and has said the process to reclaim the top spot began the day that tournament ended.
On-ice form matters: American defender Caroline Harvey leads her team in this Olympic tournament with nine points, a concrete offensive spark heading into the final. For Canada, Poulin's clutch history in gold-medal moments — and now her record-breaking scoring — will draw enormous attention when the puck drops.
Fans should also note that arrangements are in place for broad access to the game: there will be a free livestream and live updates available for the gold medal match so that audiences can follow the unfolding drama in real time on Thursday (ET).
What the final could mean
The stakes are both personal and historical. For Knight, a gold would serve as a capstone to a long Olympic run and a public farewell on the sport's biggest stage. For Poulin, continuing to score in the final would only deepen her place in Olympic lore; she already has a reputation for game-winners in gold-medal moments.
Beyond individual narratives, the game will reaffirm the unique dominance of these two programs in women's Olympic hockey. The matchup promises intensity, star-driven storylines and the kind of national-level rivalry that has become central to the sport's Olympic drama. Whatever the outcome, Thursday's final will be a defining moment for Us Women's Hockey and for the ongoing U. S. -Canada rivalry in the sport.
