Hilary Knight played through torn MCL in gold medal run at Olympics
Hilary Knight was pivotal in helping the U.S. women’s national hockey team capture gold once again at the 2026 Winter Olympics last month, and she did so with an undisclosed injury.
Knight revealed on CBS Mornings on Monday, she ‘got a little banged up’ during the Olympics in Milan and played through a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL).
“To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical,’ Knight said. ‘We’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best – as best as I could.”
Knight appeared in all seven games for Team USA during their march to the gold medal. The five-time Olympian scored a late equalizer to send the gold medal game against Canada to overtime, before Megan Keller’s sudden-death goal lifted the Americans to the top of the podium for the first time since 2018. Knight’s goal also established a new all-time U.S. Olympic record in points (33) and goals (15). Knight finished the tournament with six points — three goals and three assists.
Knight sat out the Seattle Torrent’s 5-2 loss to the Toronto Sceptres due to her injury on Saturday after the PWHL resumed from an Olympic break. “I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the Seattle Torrent,” she added on Monday.
Knight didn’t disclose when she suffered the MCL tear, but she did leave the ice with an apparent injury to her left leg during Team USA’s 5-0 victory over Finland on Feb. 7, their second game of the tournament.
Finland forward Ida Kuoppala collided with Knight’s left leg in front of the U.S. bench as Knight possessed the puck with 4:28 remaining in the first period. Knight’s leg buckled and she immediately fell to the ice, where she withered in pain. She left the ice and didn’t return with the starting line for the remainder of the first period while receiving medical attention on the bench.
‘When we saw her kind of roll over and got hurt a little bit, (it) almost brought me to tears on the bench,’ Taylor Heise recalled at the time. ‘(Knight) is such a resilient player and she worked so hard and you could see her when she got in the locker room, it didn’t phase her. Straight to the trainer and did what she needed to do and figured it out.’
Knight returned to the game against Finland and went on to score her 14th career Olympic goal, tying the U.S. Olympic all-time scoring record held by Natalie Darwitz and Katie King. She took sole ownership of the goals (and points) record during the gold medal game when the Americans needed it most.
Knight has said the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics would be her fifth and final Games, but she noted on Monday she’s “certainly capable” of competing in another Olympics.
‘The girls are trying,’ Knight said with a laugh, referring to her teammates. “I think this is … we are just processing this amazing storybook, so to speak, ending for myself.”
Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at@CydHenderson.
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