Defenseman Megan Keller took an outlet pass to the net and beat Canada goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens for the gold-medal winning goal at 4:07 into overtime to give Team USA a 2-1 victory on Thursday in Milan.

The 3-on-3 overtime ending capped a tense finish of another epic game for the in women’s hockey finale between the neighboring North American countries.

Captain Hilary Knight scored her 15th career Olympic goal to force overtime for the United States in the final, which featured overtime between the two countries for the third time in the past four Winter Games.

Knight knotted the score at 1 with 2:04 remaining on the goal that made her the USA women’s hockey leader in Olympic goals. Off of a face-off win, Knight caught a blue-line pass standing with her back to the goal just in front of the net and tipped it past Desbiens.

Canada took a 1-0 lead on Kristin O’Neill’s shorthanded goal in the second period with an assist from Laura Stacey.

–Field Level Media

LIVIGNO, Italy — China’s Eileen Gu bounced back from a mistake to qualify on Thursday for the Winter Olympics freestyle skiing halfpipe final, giving the defending champion a chance to pick up yet another medal.

Gu crashed on her first run, after clipping the edge of the U-shaped ramp that defines the halfpipe discipline, but more than made up for it with a well-executed second attempt.

“I’m glad I was able to reinforce my sense of self-belief at the moment when it counted,” she said.

With 12 out of 21 competitors going through to Saturday’s final, Gu came fifth with a score of 86.5, out of a maximum of 100. Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin, the 2025 world champion, led the pack on 91.5 points, followed by China’s Li Fanghui with 90.

Atkin prevailed despite pre-competition nerves.

“I’m really happy I was able to kind of manage that nervousness and put down a clean run,” she said. “It’s honestly a really big relief, so I’m super excited for Saturday.”

NASTY CRASH FOR CANADA’S SHARPE

Canada’s Cassie Sharpe, who won halfpipe gold in 2018 and silver in 2022, came in third with 88.25 points, but crashed badly on her second run, prompting a medical intervention.

Rescue operations took several tense minutes during which the crowd fell quiet, but spectators cheered in relief as Sharpe was fit enough to wave her arms while taken away on a stretcher.

In Milan Cortina, 22-year-old Gu has already picked up silver medals in slopestyle and big air, turning her into the most decorated woman in the history of her sport.

The American-born freeskier, who switched to compete for her mother’s native China in 2019, also won golds in big air and halfpipe, plus a silver in slopestyle, at the 2022 Beijing Games.

In halfpipe, riders slide across a U-shaped snow ramp and perform acrobatics in the air. They are awarded points based on height, difficulty, variety of tricks, and other factors.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

Golden State Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry had an MRI exam that came back clean on his ailing right knee, but he has not returned to practice because of persistent pain and swelling, ESPN reported on Thursday afternoon.

Curry, who turns 38 on March 14, already was ruled out of the Warriors’ home game on Thursday night because of patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as “runner’s knee.”

He has not played since leaving a Jan. 30 home game against Detroit, missing five contests leading into the All-Star break. He initially felt pain during a Jan. 24 individual workout and kept playing before being sidelined.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr had hoped to have Curry back by Thursday, but Curry told the training staff on Wednesday night that the knee had been flaring up after individual workouts and wasn’t ready for a live scrimmage, ESPN reported.

“Just wasn’t where he needed to be,” Kerr said on Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate.”

A two-time NBA MVP, Curry had to sit out his 12th All-Star Game last weekend. He has missed 16 games to date, but is averaging 27.2 points per game, the fifth-highest per game total of his 17-year career.

“It’s a matter of learning as I go what works rehab-wise,” Curry told ESPN on Feb. 5. “Because it’s still painful. You have to try to get rid of all the inflammation and pain. It’s something we still have to monitor and injury-manage, but it’s something where, if I come back too early, it could flare up.”

–Field Level Media