‘Captain Clutch’ Marie-Philip Poulin sets Olympic women’s hockey goals record

Canadian women’s hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin added to her Olympic legacy in Monday’s 2-1 semifinal victory against Switzerland, becoming the all-time leading goal scorer in Olympic women’s hockey history.

After tying her former teammate Hayley Wickenheiser at 18 career Olympic goals in Saturday’s quarterfinal win over Germany, Poulin stood alone atop the record board less than two minutes into the second period.

Poulin took a pass from Sophie Jaques a few feet in front of the blue line and rocketed a skipping slapshot past Swiss goalie Andrea Braendli to put Canada up 1-0 and supplant Wickenheiser for first all-time.

“Captain Clutch” added a second goal a few minutes later, batting a rebound off a shot by Daryl Watts into the net as she fell to the ice. The goal made her the first woman to score 20 goals in Olympic history and gave Poulin her fifth multi-goal game in Olympic play, all of which have come in the semifinal or gold medal games.

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“I grew up idolizing [Poulin], and I obviously still do. She means so much to our team and to the country. It’s so special to be part of history for [Poulin],” Watts, who assisted on both of Poulin’s goals, said when interviewed during the second intermission. “It was just pure joy … She’s the greatest player of all time. Just so happy for her, and it’s easy to be happy for such a nice, special person.”

Monday’s semifinal was the second-straight game in which Poulin found the net after missing Canada’s final two group play games with a lower-body injury that knocked her out of their matchup with Czechia in the first period last week.

The five-time Olympian will look to add to that total on Thursday when Canada and the United States meet in the gold medal game for the seventh time. The USA demolished Canada 5-0 in their group play game last week, the first game Poulin sat out of due to injury. 

That story will likely be different with Poulin back in the lineup. The three-time Olympic gold medalist has scored in every Olympic gold medal game in which she has played, including scoring the gold medal clincher in 2010, 2014 and 2022.

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