BY KAREN BOSSICK

The United States has another Miracle on Ice.

And it was Sun Valley’s Hilary Knight who nailed the first goal in the gold medal win.

The USA came from behind to defeat Canada 3-2 Thursday, winning in a shootout to end Canada’s run of four consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Knight scored a power-play goal in the first period. And Monique Lamoreux-Morando tied it at 2-2 after Canada had taken a lead.

Lamoureux-Davidson then faked a backhand pulling Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados away from the net before shooting the puck past Sabados’ glove in the sixth round of the shootout.

It was 38 years to the day after the men’s Miracle on Ice over a Soviet team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. It spelled sweet success for  Team USA, which had lost to the Canadians 2-1 in tournament play a week earlier in a physical  game where Knight scored the lone goal for the Americans.

And it capped a year that began with the American women threatening to boycott the world championships to receive more parity in their sport.

Canada had won 24 straight Olympic games before Thursday’s loss.

With the contest stretching after midnight Mountain Time, many of those in the Wood River Valley went to bed before the contest was decided

“I went to bed after the second period. I hoped they would win, but you never know,” said Mark Bucknall. “As it turned out we beat the Canadians in curling too!”

“I think even the Canadians were secretly happy for us,” said Heather McGregor, who also confessed to going to bed early.

Sun Valley resident Rae DeVito, long a neighbor of the Knights, was one of those who hung in there until the end. She then reveled in what she called “a long line of young Wonder Women standing underneath the American flag, singing the national anthem and sharing in well-deserved glory and joy.”

“They lifted us all!” she said. “Needless to say, as the game progressed from a tie score to overtime and then the shootout, it was a merciless nail biter. However, it seemed that as each girl skated forward to take her turn they grasped a new level of confidence and elegance to carry them through. It was like a dance. I texted my friends one of my favorite quotes: ‘Don’t quit five minutes before the miracle!’ ”

Robbie Murden, who heads up Sun Valley Youth Hockey, is a Canadian who wears a Canadian Olympic hat and sweatshirt and a Hilary Knight wristband that was handed out at the ice rink before the Olympics started.

He says he watched the gold medal game strictly as a hockey fan.

“It was cool to see them battle so hard and to see someone who calls Sun Valley home score a goal. I won’t be wearing my Canadian Olympic hat and sweatshirt this week, but I will be wearing my Hilary Knight wristband,” he said.

Murden, who also plays for the Sun Valley Suns, said the Suns’ viewing party got “pretty animated” between the Canadian players on the Suns and the American Suns, although all in good fun.

“This win for U.S. hockey is so huge. And to see them compete so fiercely is so cool. Gender aside, as a hockey fan, the game was so fun to watch. It inspires our local girls and it’s also great for the boys—it was just great hockey.”

The 200-plus kids in Sun Valley Youth Hockey were rooting for Knight. Some of the girls have skated with Knight when she’s given informal clinics here. Some of the kids’ families know Hilary’s family. And at least one family upgraded their TV package specifically so they could watch Team USA’s women’s hockey games.

“We have a ton of super talented girls in our program now—a lot of our young girls strive to be part of something like the women’s hockey team. And I think this arch rivalry between those two teams is part of the reason why,” Murden said. “Women’s hockey has been exploding worldwide. I just hope that when Hilary comes back maybe she’ll find time to come visit with us, maybe work with us. I’d certainly be open to that.”

Of course, Knight and her teammates have thought of nothing but this game for four years—ever since watching a 3-1 lead slip away to Canada in overtime in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The United States had won seven of the past eight World Championships but had come up short in the Olympics every year except for the first year that women’s hockey made its Winter Olympics debut—in 1998. Three of those times Team USA lost to Canada.

Now, Hilary Knight is angling for yet another sign that women are getting their due.

“They should make a movie on it,” the forward told an Associated Press reporter following Thursday’s gold medal win. “We had all the drama and everything. It’s sort of a storybook ending to an incredible series of accomplishments.”

THURSDAY WAS A GOOD DAY FOR SUN VALLEY SPORTS FANS

While hockey fans celebrated Hilary Knight, Sun Valley’s Nordic community celebrated the historic gold medal win by Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall after the two won the team sprint freestyle race in PyeongChang.

Bill Koch was the only American to medal in cross country skiing prior to this—and he grabbed his silver in 1976.

The Sun Valley community has a particular affinity for the two women because they not only have trained and raced in Sun Valley but they’ve held a couple day-long clinics here, exhorting young girls to join them in their love of the outdoors and cross country skiing.

Simi Hamilton, who has skied with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s elite team, took fifth in a men’s relay—a result that might have been higher had a teammate not fallen.

Mikaela Shiffrin, who endeared herself to Sun Valley ski fans during the 2016 National Alpine championships in Sun Valley, captured a silver medal in the combined downhill and slalom. Shiffrin is scheduled to be back in Sun Valley for the 2018 National Alpine Championships March 21-26.

Meanwhile Wood River Valley native Ben Verge led two halfpipe skiers--David Wise and Alex Ferreira to gold and silver as a halfpipe coach.