Relative Something

It happened again! This time, it was the Women’s US Hockey Team Defender, Megan Keller, scoring in a 3-on-3 overtime period to win the Gold Medal in the Olympics. And again, if it hadn’t actually happened, I would declare this scene in a movie as too improbable, sappy, and overdone.

If you didn’t see it, there is a video showing the goal from every camera angle that is a work of art. [That clip may be subject to an ad before starting, but trust me, the video is worth the wait.] As I watched this compilation the first time, I found myself giggling each time it showed the players throwing off gloves and heaving sticks skyward in celebration.

The fairy tale of yesterday’s victory by Team USA started well before that spectacular golden goal in overtime and deserves a retelling for those of you who may have missed it. The USA was losing 1-0, with time dwindling in the third period. Before the clock had reached 2 minutes to go in the game, the US coach pulled his Goalie to put a sixth player on the ice for a faceoff in the Canadian end of the rink.

With no goalie protecting the US net, it was do-or-die to control the puck and get shots toward Canada’s goal. The US won possession of the faceoff, and the puck was passed to Laila Edwards near the blue line. Edwards lined up her shot, hesitating just a critical moment for an opening before sending the puck toward the Canadian goalie. Defying odds, US team captain, Hilary Knight, expertly positioned her stick to deflect the puck into the net to tie the score and force the overtime period.

In overtime, the key to providing Megan Keller the chance to ultimately seal the victory came from way back near the US goal, where Forward, Taylor Heise (a member of the Minnesota Frost of the PWHL), served up a well-timed loooong pass up to Keller as Canada was trying to get fresh skaters on the ice.

Megan took it from there, looking cool as a cucumber with a dangle of the puck past the lone defender to bring her in front of the goal, where she flipped a backhand shot with enough confidence that the puck had no choice but to sneak over the goalie’s pad and under her stick-hand blocker to end up in the back of the net.

GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!

Let the celebration commence.

Seriously, watch that compilation of the winning goal happening over and over from different angles and ultimately in slow motion. If you watch it with sound, the play-by-play announcer is only featured in the first one. All the rest offer the beauty of just the crowd’s reaction, with a rise when Keller outsmarts the defense and then the eruption when the puck ends up in the net.

I’m going to be watching this clip more times than I watched the replay of Quinn Hughes’ overtime goal the day before.

The US Men’s team plays a semifinal against Slovakia this afternoon. I hope my nerves can handle more of this excitement.

In another version of ice and skates, shout out to Alysa Liu for her spectacular skating yesterday!

So much Winter Olympic fun to be had.

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