U.S. beats Canada in women’s hockey world championship final on Hilary Knight hat trick

Hilary Knight had a hat trick, and the U.S. scored three times in the last four minutes to beat Canada 6-3 in the world women’s hockey championship final, ending a losing streak in the rivalry.

The Americans beat the Canadians in a major final for the first time since the 2018 Olympics. Canada won the previous two world championships, plus the 2022 Olympics, and was riding a five-game win streak overall in the rivalry, matching its longest in 13 years.

Canada led 3-2 after two periods in Brampton, Ontario, but 20-year-old defender Caroline Harvey tied it five minutes into the final frame.

Then the U.S. went on a five-on-three power play with 3:52 left and got two goals from Knight in a 27-second span. She became the first American to record a hat trick in an Olympic or world championship final and ran her career total to 101 points in world championships, the most by any skater.

“I’m just so happy that we pulled it together,” Knight said in an on-ice interview, speaking loudly over Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” “This is a really young team. They say experience wins championships. We worked on it. We had our experience. We had our energy, and it was a solid team win tonight.”

Abbey Murphy and Cayla Barnes also scored for the U.S., which recorded the largest margin of victory in a major final since 2009. Only one of the last 11 gold-medal games between the rivals had been decided by more than one goal.

For Canada, Brianne Jenner scored twice in the final, just as she did at 2022 Worlds. Marie-Philip Poulin added her 10th career goal in 14 career major finals versus the U.S. dating to 2009.

The Americans made major roster changes going into these worlds.

They were without three-time Olympic medalist forwards Kendall Coyne