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Team USA rallied to defeat Team Canada 6-3 in Sunday’s IIHF Women’s World Championship gold medal game to secure their first title since 2019. Hilary Knight stole the show as she scored her 100th point in her IIHF Worlds career and finished the game with a hat trick.

Hailey Salvian, Shayna Goldman and Sean Gentille

Women’s Worlds 2023: Hilary Knight’s hat trick leads USA to gold medal win over Canada

Team USA rallied to defeat Team Canada 6-3 in Sunday’s IIHF Women’s World Championship gold medal game to secure their first title since 2019. Here’s what you need to know:

• USA’s Hilary Knight broke a 3-3 tie with 3:10 left in regulation, scoring a five-on-three goal that would hold as the game-winner.
• The go-ahead goal was the 100th point of Knight’s IIHF Worlds career and her second goal of the game. She completed a hat trick 27 seconds later to put the U.S. ahead 5-3.
• This marks Team USA’s 10th gold medal and first since defeating Finland in 2019. Canada was seeking its third straight world championship.

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Team USA wins 6-3 to claim the gold medal

Praises from Hilary Knight

Every bit of praise Hilary Knight gets after that performance will be deserved. She's one of the few best American players in the history of hockey, and we're lucky to watch her. Abbey Murphy's night shouldn't go unnnoticed, though. Murphy scored the first U.S. goal, then basically bought a call to send Brianne Jenner to the penalty box and set the table for the go-ahead goal.

That's Murphy in a nutshell — she truly seems like hell to play against — and says a lot about the work she's put in since being left off the 2022 World Championship roster. For the U.S., ironically, a lot of this tournament was about identifying core players for the future. Murphy, at 21, is part of that group.

A conversation with Hilary Knight back in November

6-3 Team USA

Cayla Barnes with the empty net goal to make it 6-3 USA.

There's two minutes left and fans are leaving the building. It's not over ... But that should do it.

Canada pulls their goalie with about two minutes to go and USA quickly scores on the empty net. Friends…. I don’t want to jinx anything, after we saw USA somehow battle back from their goal deficit in the prelims… but…

5-3 Team USA

USA’s back to a 5-on-4 advantage, puts Harvey out there instead of sticking with five forwards. It works out, either way. 101 points for Knight and a hat trick.

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Team USA takes the lead

There’s point 100 for Hilary Knight. USA gets their first lead of the game on the 5v3.

Team USA has to capitalize

Here’s the thing, I’m not sure USA’s power play has it in them especially against this penalty kill. But USA has to feel pretty good that Jenner’s off the ice for two minutes.

Team USA is about to get a 5-on-3. If they're going to win this game ... this is it.

Delay of game penalty to Claire Thompson to send USA on the 5-on-3. Canada opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 in the first, can USA get their first lead here?

Give credit where credit is due

Hayley Scamurra doesn't get enough credit for her role on the team. She's been called for a few penalties (that were pretty weak), but for the most part she does all the little things right, and is an easy player for Wroblewski to throw over the boards in big moments. I'm a fan.

Caroline Harvey ties it at 3-3

Most importantly, Caroline Harvey's goal puts me one Hilary Knight overtime goal away from being 100 percent correct about something for the first time in my life.

No 3-2 finish this year

Caroline Harvey just keeps raising her game, and now she does it during such a pivotal part of the game. Credit to Scamurra with the puck retrieval to get this going.

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Questionable refereeing

Today at the IIHF media conference, the refs got a ton of credit for their work at the tournament. I think the players would have something to say about that.

Hilary Knight speaks on her brothers influence

A couple months back, we talked to Hilary Knight on The Athletic Hockey Show and had a nice lil' laugh about her brothers showing up at games and getting loud as hell. She mentioned those guys ahead of the third period.

"I can hear my brother starting the Team USA cheers," Knight said at intermission, via the broadcast. "The best way to get a building quite is to score a goal for the United States."

Canada leads 3-2 at the break

While we're at intermission (Canada is up 3-2), it's probably worth noting how ridiculous it is that the NHL Network uses TSN's feed for its American audience. No knock on Kenzie Lalonde or former Olympic team member Cheryl Pounder — they're both great at their jobs and serving their audience well. That's the priority, and it should be. That audience, though, is Canadian.

Canada is starting to set the tone

The worry for the US now is that Canada starts to set the tone of this game. They are more than happy to grind the rest of this game out along the walls and not let any offense get going for either team.

Team USA needs a timeout

USA’s defense definitely could use a second to reset this intermission, it hasn’t been their best outing. The offense could do more to support Frankel too, they’ve had very little generated since that Canada go-ahead go

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Aerin Frankel is playing really well in her first gold medal game

I can't blame her for any of the three goals against at this point. The last one, in particular, I'm not sure what the US forwards were doing in the D zone and who let Jenner go unchecked on the doorstep. She's coming up with big saves to keep them in this game as Canada continues to pressure.

Do. Not. Sleep.

Brianne Jenner was MVP of the 2022 Olympics. Scored both goals in the gold medal game last year, and now has two and an assist so far in this one.

That’s three leads for Canada so far

At some point, USA, if they want to avoid four straight silvers, is going to have to tie the score and build on their lead…

Probably unwise to leave Brianne Jenner alone in front of the net, as the U.S. did just now. Renata Fast hit her with the shot-pass.

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