The U.S. men’s hockey team has tons of ties to the Great Lakes State, and the new face of women’s hockey is also from Michigan. Farmington native Megan Keller scored the golden goal to give the U.S. women’s team the gold medal in an overtime victory over rival Canada.
It’s Megan Keller’s second gold medal, earning her first in 2018 when the U.S beat Canada in a shootout in the gold medal game. The golden goal was Keller’s third goal of the tournament, tying with fellow U.S. defensemen Caroline Harvey for the most individual points with nine.
Keller was born in Farmington, and grew to love hockey after watching her older brother Ryan play as a child. Ryan, who attended Detroit Catholic Central, played four years of hockey at Michigan State and spent a year in minor league hockey.
Megan played for the Honeybaked AAA hockey club while attending North Farmington High School until her graduation in 2014. The Kellers are another in a long line of successful Michigan hockey families.
Keller went to her first Olympics while she played for the Boston College Eagles in 2018. After playing for the Eagles for four years, and earning All-American honors after the 2016-17 season, she then turned professional, now playing for the Boston Fleet.
While she’s been dominating the Massachusetts hockey scene, Keller has still found time to come back and give back to Farmington through a girls hockey camp.
“I hope the biggest thing they take away from the week is the fact that we have so many great staffers here,” Keller told the Oakland Press in 2021. “Hopefully we’re great role models for them and they look up at us and see us continue to play hockey and reach our goals and dreams. Hopefully it just inspires them to do the same with whatever passion they have.”
According to Keller’s father, she used to have a stencil above her bed that said “Dream until your dreams come true.” Scoring the game-winning goal of any championship is any athlete’s life-long dream, and Michigan’s own Megan Keller made it come true.
Alex Deimel is a contributing writer for Michigan Enjoyer.
