MILAN \u2014 Marie-Philip Poulin has given Canada plenty of golden moments over her historic career at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
She scored the game-winning goal in 2010, 2014 and 2022. She\u2019s done it at the Women\u2019s World Championships, too, scoring the winner in 2021.<\/p>\n
And now, she\u2019s giving Canada hope.<\/p>\n
On Monday night in the semifinals against Switzerland, Poulin made history, scoring her 19th career goal at the Olympics, passing Hockey Hall of Fame forward Hayley Wickenheiser in career goals at the Olympics. Then she added another \u2014 for 20 career goals \u2014 to lead Canada to a 2-1 win, setting up another Olympic gold medal game against the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t care for records like that, it\u2019s just how humble she is,\u201d said defender Renata Fast. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty incredible for her to break a record like that. And I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone more deserving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team Canada\u2019s road through this women\u2019s hockey tournament has been anything but smooth. Its first game of the preliminary round was postponed because of a norovirus outbreak on the Finnish national team, disrupting its schedule. Then Poulin, the team\u2019s captain and best player, was injured and missed two games, including a 5-0 loss against Team USA \u2013 Canada\u2019s worst loss at the Olympics since 1998.<\/p>\n
Now, after Monday\u2019s victory, Canada will get another shot at an American team that has dominated the tournament. No team has scored more goals than the U.S. (31), which has scored at least five goals in five straight wins. The U.S. also haven\u2019t allowed a goal in 331 minutes, 23 seconds, with starting goalie Aerin Frankel becoming the first goalie in Olympic women\u2019s hockey history to record three shutouts in a single tournament.<\/p>\n
With young stars like Caroline Harvey, Hannah Bilka and Abbey Murphy pacing the tournament in scoring, there\u2019s little doubt that Team USA has the best, most talented roster in Milan.<\/p>\n
But Canada has Poulin.<\/p>\n
She is the best all-around women\u2019s hockey player in the world and is always at her best on the biggest stage. She\u2019s the only player (male or female) to score in four consecutive gold medal games at the tournament. Over half of her goals (12) at the Olympics have come in the knockout stage, with Canada facing possible elimination, including Monday in a tight contest against Switzerland.<\/p>\n
After a scoreless first period, it was Poulin who finally broke through with the first goal of the game, breathing life into Team Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing surprises me anymore,\u201d said head coach Troy Ryan. \u201cWe have a bit of a flat start. We have a conversation in between periods. And of course it\u2019s going to be Poulin that takes the lead in those situations. You grow to expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her second goal of the game, a diving attempt through Swiss goalie Andrea Br\u00e4ndli\u2019s crease, proved to be the game-winner after Canada failed to score in the third period. It was her fifth career multi-goal game at the Olympics in her 26th career game, which tied Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford for the most games played by a Canadian at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s one of the fiercest competitors I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said goalie Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens. \u201cShe\u2019s gonna put her body on the line. She\u2019s willing to do anything it takes to win. We saw her go at that, that crazy dive, like it was the most important play ever, and it was a very big goal for us in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Switzerland pressed hard in the third period \u2014 so well, in fact, that Swiss captain Lara Stalder called Canada both \u201cshaky\u201d and \u201cbeatable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without Poulin, they might have been.<\/p>\n
She led all skaters with seven shots on goal \u2014 almost as many as the entire Swiss team combined (8) \u2014 and her line with Daryl Watts and Sarah Fillier was consistently dangerous in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n
Just one week ago, Poulin\u2019s status for the remainder of the Olympics was in question. She took a big hit in Canada\u2019s 5-1 win over the Czech Republic on Monday night and was in obvious pain on the bench. She tried to take another shift in the game, but ended up limping to the dressing room not long after.<\/p>\n
That Poulin was able to return so soon \u2014 and make an impact with three goals in her last two games \u2014 is a testament to the work Poulin puts in behind the scenes. She\u2019s dedicated in the gym and one of the strongest athletes on the ice on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to see the work that she puts in every single day to shine in moments like this (is incredible), \u201d said Fast. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for players to be the greatest year after year. That\u2019s really hard to sustain \u2014 but she does it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. team has been a force in these Olympics, and even before these Games. They\u2019ve now beaten Canada in seven straight games, making them the favorite to win gold on Thursday. Canada enters as the clear underdog.<\/p>\n
But if there\u2019s any player who can single-handedly change a team\u2019s fortune, it\u2019s Poulin. She made that much very clear on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe puts our team on her back, she puts our entire country on her back,\u201d said Laura Stacey. \u201cKnowing you have that type of goal scorer, knowing that you have that type of leader in your locker room, who is willing to lay it on the line continually, I think it makes everybody else want to do the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 36-year-old U.S. legend Hilary Knight has announced this is her fifth and final Olympics, Poulin, 34, has made no such proclamation. After the game on Monday night she said she hasn\u2019t thought that far ahead yet.<\/p>\n
What we do know is that Poulin, the most clutch athlete in the sport, has one more game at this year\u2019s tournament. And one more opportunity to meet the moment, as she\u2019s done so many times before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Marie-Philip Poulin has given Canada plenty of golden moments over her historic career at the Olympics.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[385,1082,99,82958,211710],"class_list":["post-472948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-womens-hockey","tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}