MILAN — Marie-Philip Poulin has given Canada plenty of golden moments over her historic career at the Olympics.
She scored the game-winning goal in 2010, 2014 and 2022. She’s done it at women’s world championships, too, scoring the winner in 2021.
And now, she’s giving Canada hope.
On Monday night, in the semifinals against Switzerland, Poulin made history, scoring her 19th career goal at the Olympics, officially passing Hockey Hall of Fame forward Hayley Wickenheiser in career goals at the Olympics. Then she added another — for 20 career goals — to lead Canada to a 2-1 win, setting up another Olympic gold medal game against the United States.
Team Canada’s road through this women’s hockey tournament has been anything but smooth. Their first game of the preliminary round was postponed because of a norovirus outbreak on the Finnish national team, disrupting their schedule. Then, Poulin, their captain and best player, was injured and missed two games, including a 5-0 loss against Team USA – Canada’s worst loss at the Olympics since 1998.
Now, after Monday’s victory, Canada will get another shot at an American team that has dominated the tournament. No team has scored more goals than the U.S. (31), which has scored at least five goals in five-straight wins. They also haven’t been scored against for 331 minutes, 23 seconds, with starting goalie Aerin Frankel becoming the first goalie in Olympic women’s hockey history to record three shutouts in a single tournament.
With young stars like Caroline Harvey and Abbey Murphy pacing the tournament in scoring, there’s little doubt that Team USA has the best, most talented roster in Milan.
But Canada has Poulin.
She is the best women’s hockey player in the world and is always at her best on the biggest stage. She’s the only player (male or female) to score in four consecutive gold medal games at the tournament. Over half of her goals (12) at the Olympics have come in the knockout stage, with Canada facing possible elimination, including on Monday against Switzerland.
After a scoreless first period, it was Poulin who broke through with the first goal of the game, breathing life into Team Canada. Her second goal of the game, scored less than seven minutes later, would prove to be the winner. It was her fifth career multi-goal game at the Olympics in her 26th career game, which tied Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford for the most games played by a Canadian at the Olympics.
This story will be updated.