Heartbreaking Olympic loss fuels Canadian players as PWHL resumes

By Canadian Press on February 27, 2026.

VANCOUVER — The sting of a heartbreaking Olympic loss is morphing into something else for Canadian defender Claire Thompson.

It’s been more than a week since Canada’s women’s hockey team fell 2-1 to the United States in overtime in the gold medal game, and as the days go by, the Vancouver Goldeneyes associate captain is gaining new perspective on her experience at the Milan Cortina Games.

“As time goes on, I look back at it with a lot of fondness. I’m really proud of our group,” she said. “Obviously, we feel like we came up short, but bringing a silver medal back to Canada is nothing to be too disappointed about. So I think with time it gets better.”

Cameras captured Thompson’s anguish in the moments after Megan Keller scored the game-winning goal for the Americans.

The image shows the two-time Canadian Olympian lying on the ice, head in her still-gloved hands, as Keller raises her stick in celebration just feet away.

“In sports, you have to put yourself out there, and that’s difficult. And sometimes you feel like you let people down, and that’s disappointing,” Thompson said. “But I think there’s a lot to be proud of in my performance at those games, and I won’t let myself define myself by that last moment.”

After taking home Olympic silver, a chance at winning a Professional Women’s Hockey League championship is fuelling Goldeneyes forward Sarah Nurse.

“As a competitor, when you play a sport, obviously you want to have a lot of fun, you want to be courageous, you want to do your thing. But at the end of the day, you want to win. You’re a competitor,” she said.

“And so there’s not an opportunity to win another Olympic gold medal for a couple of years. And so the thing that is right in front of me is Walter Cup, and so that’s my goal.”

Thompson, Nurse and the three other Goldeneyes who represented Canada in Milan will return to the ice Sunday when Vancouver hosts the Toronto Sceptres in PWHL action.

The Goldeneyes come in sitting sixth in the league with five wins, one overtime win, three overtime losses and eight regulation losses on the season. The Sceptres are in seventh place.

Nurse knows there’ll be extra eyes on Sunday’s game following the Olympics, where 7.7 million viewers took in the women’s hockey final.

The PWHL says its website saw about six times its normal traffic during the Games, and merchandise sales grew by 101 per cent.

The league gives those new fans an avenue to follow women’s hockey and makes the players accessible, Nurse said.

“I mean, obviously, every single Olympic cycle you play in the gold-medal game, you play in the medal rounds, and millions of people watch that game, and then afterwards, there’s nowhere for anybody to watch,” she said.

“And so the fact that we just played a gold medal game last week … to be able to come back to the Pacific Coliseum and have not only 15,000 people in the stands, but thousands of people watching on TV also makes it so much easier.”

The Olympics is a great platform to promote the PWHL, said Goldeneyes goalie Emerance Maschmeyer, and it brought new fans to the game.

Existing fans also got a chance to see some of the game’s biggest stars on a new stage in Italy, she added.

“I think what’s really neat is at the Olympics, I noticed a lot of PWHL jerseys in the stands as well, and I recognized some fans that were there cheering us on,” Maschmeyer said. “So that’s really special to see. It’s not just family and friends. We had a lot of fans that flew out to watch us.”

A spotlight was also shone on women’s hockey after the Olympics due to disparaging comments U.S. President Donald Trump made in a phone call to the gold-medal winning men’s hockey team.

Hilary Knight, captain of both the U.S. women’s team and the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent, spoke about the comments earlier this week and said her team was focusing on celebrating their success.

The five-time Olympian also said the situation was a “great teaching moment” about how women shouldn’t have to explain anyone else’s behaviour.

Nurse agreed, calling Knight’s comments “eloquent.”

“I think it’s tough to have to walk into situations, and it happens far too often in women’s sports and for women in general, really walking in and kind of cleaning up messes that aren’t really theirs,” she said.

“And at the end of the day, I hope (the U.S. women’s team) all feel very supported by the women’s hockey community, by their country, because at the end of the day, it’s such an honour to represent your country and to bring home a medal is one of the greatest things.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press