By Amy Tennery and Giulio Piovaccari
MILAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin leaves Milan with an injured knee but her pride intact, praising her teammates for a well-fought overtime effort that came up short against the United States 2-1 in the Olympic women’s ice hockey final.
Up 1-0 with little more than two minutes left in regulation, Canada looked to have the golden touch before Hilary Knight levelled it for the Americans and the defending champions slipped to silver after Megan Keller’s overtime heroics.
“We came out, we wanted to play, we wanted to make it difficult for them and we did. Honestly, we knew it was going to be a battle, it was going to be up and down, and it was,” said Poulin, who missed the final two games of the group stage with a knee injury before returning in the quarter-finals.
“Overtime against the US? I don’t think it’s a surprise for anybody.”
The 34-year-old “Captain Clutch” has been the architect behind some of Canada’s greatest Olympic moments since she burst onto the global stage in 2010 to claim her first of three goals when she was just 18 years old on home soil.
She added another line to her legacy in Milan, where she broke the all-time Olympic goal-scoring record during the semi-final. The future without her feels almost unthinkable for Canada, where she is regarded as a national hero.
But the powerful centre who has packed a punch through her 16-year Olympic career bobbed and weaved around a reporter’s question on Thursday when asked if her fifth Games would be her last, saying she was not yet sure.
Instead, she heaped praise on her teammates, urging them to wear their silver with pride.
“Just letting them know that that (loss) does not define them, that I’m proud of them, that they showed up,” she said. “They can keep their head high because it’s truly an honour to be along their side.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, Giulio Piovaccari and Janina Nuno Rios in MilanEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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