Aerin Frankel rarely, if ever, has to get up in the air as part of her duties as goalie of the Boston Fleet.
But Frankel, who led the United States women’s team from the net during the recently wrapped up Winter Olympics, got pulled as the U.S. trailed Canada 1-0 during the waning minutes of the gold medal game.
The Americans wanted an extra skater on offense. So, Frankel, who only gave up two goals in the games, had to watch from the bench. But even having to watch with the entire tournament on the line, she had confidence in the team. That’s when Hilary Knight hit the game tying goal to send the contest to overtime.
Frankel got airborne.
“And then I have never jumped so high as I did on the bench,” Frankel said Thursday. “So, it was just incredible. And then we knew when it got to overtime that it was anyone’s game. And we had the confidence to win it.”
Fleet captain Megan Keller would go on to hit the golden goal in the extra period, giving the U.S. its first gold medal in women’s hockey since 2018 and just its third ever. On Thursday, Keller, Frankel and rookie Haley Winn got to show off their Olympic hardware following the Fleet’s first full team practice since the Olympic break alongside teammate Alina Müller, who hit the shot that secured the bronze medal for Switzerland.
Hitting big shots in the Olympics is nothing new for Müller, who was just 15 when she hit the game-winning goal to secure a bronze medal for Switzerland at the 2014 Olympics. She said the reaction back home was overwhelming.
“When we arrived on Monday in Switzerland, we got a little celebration and people came,” she said. “Yeah, a lot of people were saying that we touched their hearts, and we fought and we left it all on the ice. And they were all very proud of us. And that’s something so beautiful and you can’t experience it anywhere [other] than in sports.”
This was Haley Winn’s first-ever Olympic experience. Her brothers went viral for their support of Winn during the team’s gold medal run. Now, she’s looking forward for the chance to keep that standard for the U.S.
“Obviously, a lot of people were saying it was the best U.S. group they’ve ever seen,” Winn said. “And to even hear that and be a part of that, again like I said, I’m so grateful to be that. And I hope to continue to kind of help be the best and continue to be the best for a long time.”
Fleet captain Megan Keller has a pretty good recollection of what happened leading up to her game winning goal against the Canadians. But the goal itself is still a bit of a blur.
“Came to when I saw the puck cross the line,” Keller said. “And just could not get to my teammates fast enough, could not get to Aerin fast enough… she’s the best goalie in the world and we’re not bringing the gold home without her.”
Keller recalled celebrating with Alysa Liu in the Olympic cafeteria late at night sometime after both the women’s hockey team and Liu secured gold medals.
Keller says that’s one of the things that makes the Olympics so cool. She and her teammates were playing hockey, but they were representing Team USA as a whole.
“So, we feel just as much teammates with the other athletes as we do with ourselves,” Keller said.
That includes the U.S. men’s hockey team, who took home the gold for the first time since 1980 after beating Canada on Sunday. Keller said the two teams were at each other’s games and that Jack Hughes, who hit the game-winning goal in the men’s gold medal game, congratulated her after her game winning shot against Canada. It was the first time the men’s and women’s national teams had won Olympic gold medals in the same games.
All of which became clouded soon after, when President Donald Trump called the men’s team after their victory over Canada and made a joke at the expense of the women’s squad.
Team USA captain Hilary Knight called it distasteful. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who was on the men’s team, said they should have reacted differently after several players responded with laughter to the president’s quip.
Keller said the conversations around the moment are unfortunate.
“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,” she said.
Keller said the team went to Italy with one thing in mind: Winning the gold medal. The fact that both the men’s and women’s teams did that is what she wants people to remember.
“We’re going to be gold medalists together forever, and I think I’d just like to shift the focus to that,” Keller said. “We’re proud to be an American, all of us, and it can’t take away from what we did on the biggest stage in the world.”
