WALLINGFORD, Conn. — The U.S. claim to the gold medal in women’s hockey at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, so promising when the day began, was in grave danger. Canada had but 2 minutes, 4 seconds to kill to take it away.

Team USA, which had outscored previous opponents 31-1 five games, pulled the goalie in desperation for one score to stay alive. Captain Hilary Knight positioned herself in the slot, back to the net, and deflected Laila Edwards shot from the point, screening the goalie and tipping the puck back between her skates and into the net to send the game to overtime.

“That tip, just the skill that goes into that,” said James Stanley, one of Knight’s coaches at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford. “I mean, it looks simple if you’re not an ice hockey player, just the ability to get there to screen the goalie, to get her stick between her feet to redirect that, that was a beautiful play.”

The American women won, 2-1, on Megan Keller’s goal in overtime. Knight, 36, playing in her fifth and presumably her final Olympics, got her second gold medal, to go with three silvers, and the goal was her 15th, the points giving her 33, both U.S. Olympic records. As the U.S. captain and most accomplished player, Knight was a face of these Winter Olympics. The day before the gold medal game, Knight knelt down and proposed to her long-time girlfriend, U.S. speedskater Brittany Bowe.

The clutch goal Thursday was Knight’s third of these Olympics.

“Hilary was big and strong and fast to begin with,” Stanley said, “but she just was so dedicated to the craft and so dedicated to sport. The fire, the passion for the game. Nobody worked harder. I mean, she just worked so hard and loved the sport and clearly continues to love the sport. You don’t play in five Olympics unless you love ice hockey. She’s playing against people who are so much younger than she is and to maintain that level of fitness and speed, it’s remarkable.”

Back at Choate, a watch party of about 40 students erupted as Knight scored her game-tying goal, and the current girls hockey team was still buzzing as it’s late afternoon practice began, said Stanley, who has been an assistant coach there for 24 years.

“You know, every player starts somewhere,” Stanley said, “and to know that they can work from high school to work to that level and to understand the level of dedication, it’s such a good example, such a great role model for girls’ hockey. The Hilary Knight that I know, I worked with and remember is very much the one that you see right now.

“The the passion for hockey was evident from the first day she stepped foot on this campus. I mean, just absolutely dedicated to sport, loves the sport, and was an outstanding player from the beginning of her freshman year and just only got better and better.”

Choate was one of the first wave of schools to organize a hockey program for female students, starting with a club program in 1973, and Stanley has been involved with the program for nearly half its existence. Olympians Angela Ruggiero and Julie Chu came from Choate in the 1990s, so when Knight, who was born in Idaho and began playing hockey on boys teams as the family moved to Illinois and then New Hampshire, was ready for prep school. Choate was her destination, playing for head coaches Sarah Halsell and Courtney Riepenhoff during her time, 2003-07.

“Her ninth grade year,” Stanley said, “the year before, we had a good, solid team, but we couldn’t score goals. Then Hilary showed up and I remember going, ‘Okay, we’re going to score goals this year.'”

Knight, who also played in another pioneering local program, the Connecticut Polar Bears, went on to score 86 goals in her last two seasons at Choate before moving on to the University of Wisconsin, where she scored 143 goals in her college career, eventually becoming a pro and a fixture in the Olympic program.

Three goals she scored, or was involved in at Choate, stand out for Stanley:

“We were playing a game against Lawrence Academy, late in the game, tie game,” he said. “She’s going down the wing, and Lawrence decided she wasn’t going to score. And Hilary probably could have powered through, but the two defenders went to her. She saw her teammate and was very unselfish and just laid a nice backhand pass over to teammate Ashley Bairos, who skated in and scored the goal. There are a lot of kids in this world who are great players who would have said ‘I’m gonna do it myself.’

“Hilary, despite the fact that she was the best goal scorer in the league, she also knew that she had teammates that could she could rely on. It was just such a good, heads-up play. And then in her junior year, we had made the playoffs, playing against Loomis Chaffee, who had a terrific team, had beaten us in the regular season. It was gonna be a tough game. First shift, Hilary just steps across the blue line, gets to the top of the circle, and takes one of the best, hardest shots I’ve ever seen. It’s like, ‘Okay, Hilary’s not gonna let us lose this game.’

“And then her senior year, playing against Noble and Greenough, we were killing a 5-on-3 penalty. And you know, 5-on-3, you’re supposed to be holding on for dear life. Hilary blocks a shot, bounces out to Josephine Pucci, and suddenly you’ve got Pucci and Hillary going on the ice on a 2-on-1 on a 5-on-3 disadvantage, and they score a goal. It’s like, ‘Okay, it’s just not fair.’ She went down to her knees, blocked the shot, and she was back up on the ice before you could blink an eye. It’s like, ‘Kids can’t do that.’

“The skill level was so impressive. She was magic on the ice.”

Choate’s hockey rink has a signed Knight jersey from her pro team in Boston, and a banner honoring the school’s Olympians. When players leave the locker room, they pass a framed poster of Knight, Angela Ruggiero and Julie Chu from the 2010 Olympics. She spoke at the school’s graduation ceremonies in 2018.

“Hilary is very present in our rink,” Stanley said. “A couple of years ago, we had a playoff game and the visiting team walked into the rink, and I could hear them go, ‘Oh my God, Hilary Knight went to Choate?'”

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