By STEPHEN WHYNO, AP Hockey Author
MILAN (AP) — Quinn and Jack Hughes watched in individual because the U.S. ladies’s hockey group rallied to beat Canada within the gold medal recreation on the Olympics on Thursday night time in an overtime thriller that showcased the face of the sport in Hilary Knight and her seemingly successor in that spot, Laila Edwards.
The Hughes brothers had a household stake within the matter. Their mother, Ellen, had a job within the ladies’s championship as a participant improvement advisor.
“Completely satisfied for her, blissful for the entire group, everybody on the teaching employees,” Quinn Hughes mentioned. “You knew that recreation was going to be robust, however I believe they deserved it.”
Gamers from both group have additionally gotten to know one another from hanging out within the athletes’ village, Jack mentioned, giving the lads much more rooting curiosity.
“All of us, we had been clearly actually pumped up for them,” Jack Hughes mentioned. “That was all in regards to the ladies, and we had been tremendous excited for them.”
J.T. Miller additionally took his daughter, Quinn Hughes mentioned, and the remainder of the lads’s group watched on the finish of their corridor within the therapy room within the village they share with the ladies. Megan Keller’s OT purpose was a trigger for celebration.
“We had been going nuts,” Dylan Larkin mentioned. “It’s a fairly cool second and nice for them. For Megan Keller, that’s a terrific story: a Michigan woman, very proud for her. Nice second for USA Hockey.”
Coach Mike Sullivan opened his remarks following the group’s recreation day skate by congratulating the ladies’s group. There’s additionally a employees connection: Assistant John Hynes labored with ladies’s coach John Wroblewski on the U.S. Nationwide Group Growth Program.
“We had been speaking about it final night time; we had been speaking about it once more this morning,” Sullivan mentioned. “It’s a terrific thrill. These ladies, what a terrific hockey group and so they’ll be an inspiration for the following era of ladies rising up in america. … We couldn’t be extra happy with them.”
The U.S. ladies outscored opponents 33-2 on the best way to gold. The also-unbeaten U.S. males face Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday night time, and Sullivan hopes his group is impressed by what the ladies achieved.
“Indisputably,” Sullivan mentioned. “You have a look at how dominant they’ve been all through the course of their event and earlier than, that’s among the best ladies’s groups I believe I’ve seen. We actually aspire to do the identical on the lads’s aspect.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
