Wild celebrate Team USA women’s gold medal with special puck drop

The Minnesota Wild had a golden celebration on Thursday.

The team honored Team USA women’s hockey team players, who also play in the state, for winning the gold medal at Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 before their matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers at Grand Casino Arena.

Minnesota Frost players, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Taylor Heise, Grace Zumwinkle, Lee Stecklein, Kelly Pannek, Britta Curl-Salemme, and University of Minnesota player Abbey Murphy all sported their USA jerseys and gold medals during the ceremony.

Fans in the stands gave the team a standing ovation after a tribute video aired on the arena video board.

Heise dropped the puck between fellow gold-medal winner and Wild defenseman Brock Faber, and Flyers captain Sean Couturier.

The gold medal winners then fist bumped the Wild players as they walked off the ice.

The Minnesota players weren’t the only Team USA members celebrated on Thursday. The Buffalo Sabres invited U.S. forward and Buffalo native Hayley Scamurra to bang their pregame drum before the team’s game against the Washington Capitals at KeyBank Center.

On Feb. 19, the U.S. women’s hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime in the gold medal game. It was the USA women’s third gold medal at the Olympics. They also won gold in 1998 (Nagano) and 2018 (PyeongChang).