WELLESLY, MA — After scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to lead the USA women’s hockey team to a gold medal victory over Canada, Megan Keller admits that the moment still hasn’t fully sunk in for her yet.
“I’m not sure when it will,” Keller admitted Thursday to the media at the Boston Sports Institute. It was there that the Boston Fleet welcomed their four Olympians — Keller, Aerin Frankel, Haley Winn of Team USA and Alina Müller, who won bronze playing for Switzerland — back for the first time as they rejoined their teammates in practice earlier that day. It’s a mutual feeling shared amongst her teammates, including Winn.
“It’s hard to put into words. I honestly don’t think it’s like, hit yet,” added Haley Winn. “I probably watched Keller’s goal back like a million times, and every time you just get chills. It is so cool, obviously a dream come true, and obviously to bring it back to the city is super special.”
The win not only solidified the US women’s hockey team’s dominance, but marked a lifelong achievement for all of them. And yet, even with their success, the moment has been somewhat overshadowed by the controversy that sparked online after President Donald Trump’s phone call to US men’s hockey team after they had won gold, in which he stated that he’d be “impeached” for not inviting the US women’s hockey team to the White House. Since then, players have been asked about Trump’s comments – including Team USA and Seattle Torrent captain Hilary Knight, who called it a “distasteful.”
Keller emphasized the importance of focusing on the men’s and women’s historic accomplishments- which marked the first time ever that both team’s won gold in the same Olympic Games.
“I don’t really have a response,” Keller said on the matter. “It’s unfortunate – the conversations surrounding it, like, where it’s gone throughout social media, but you know, all I can say is, I’ve never been more proud to pull on the USA jersey and I think for a lot of us, it’s the honor of a lifetime to represent our country on the biggest stage. We went over there with one thing in mind – to bring home a gold medal for our country, and pretty incredible that we got to do it, men’s and women’s, that’s the first time that we’ve ever done that. So, I think that’s what should we highlight. As a group like both men’s and women’s, we were able to do something that’s never been done before.”
Despite what was initially perceived from the video that surfaced online, Keller reiterated that the men’s and women’s teams had actually grown close during their Olympic runs and even celebrated each other’s achievements. “Obviously, [we] became friends with them. We were at theirs, saw Jack [Hughes] after I scored my goal, and he gave me a big hug and congratulations, and I was lucky enough to do that for him after he scored his goal. So, you know, we gold medalists together forever. And I just like to shift the focus to that. You know, it’s we’re proud to be an American, all of us. And you can’t take away from from what we did on the biggest stage in the world.”
As Winn echoed, “both teams coming back with a gold medal is all that really matters.” The players were all smiles as they showed their medals to the media, and after the press conference ended, Keller even revealed that she’s storing hers inside a Team USA white tube sock for the time being.
As they celebrated winning gold, Keller said that the team also had the chance to celebrate with figure skating Olympian Alysa Liu, who won gold that same day. “I don’t know what day exactly, it was the night we both won or after, but we saw her in the dining hall or in the cafe, like, pretty late at night, we got to celebrate with her as well…For those moments to happen at the same time, she’s an incredible skater, and she’s obviously so young, she’s she’s got more in her, I’ll be looking forward to watching her career go [on].”
For Müller, who watched USA defeat Canada on her phone while she and her Switzerland teammates were standing in line to receive their bronze medals, seeing her fellow Boston Fleet teammates win was one of her “favorite moments of the whole Olympics.”
Müller also led the way for her home country to win bronze after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to defeat Sweden, 2-1. “Seeing Aerin, Winny, and Meg on top of the world and her scoring that goal and just seeing the excitement around their team and around the three of them, they deserve everything and more. They’re such great human and such great athletes, and just so happy that they get the recognition they deserve.”
With their success in the Olympics, the Fleet will now look to carry this momentum into the rest of the PWHL season, all while welcoming new fans to the league and the sport of women’s hockey. Among them is now rapper Flava Flav, who has invited the US women’s hockey team and other female US Olympic and Paralympic medalists to the “She Got Game” weekend he’s hosting in July in Las Vegas. As for whether the US women’s hockey team will actually be attending, Winn said that the team “haven’t chatted about it much” and that “we’re just trying to focus on our seasons here, but I’m sure that it will be in the mix in the future.”
“I think people that just started watching hockey for the first time at the Olympics now are going to be following the league, which is one of the most important things – is the growth of our league and the growth of women’s sports and women’s hockey,” said Frankel, adding: “They want to see and they want to continue to follow us and I think that that’s incredible. And I don’t think they’ll be disappointed when they see the product on the ice with the PWHL. I think they’ll be hooked. So hopefully we got a few more Boston Fleet fans.”