MILAN — Two minutes from being pushed from the ice into retirement, Captain America refused to go quietly and made the loudest play of her hockey life.

Down a goal to Canada with the third period of the Olympic gold-medal match slip-sliding away, U.S. captain Hilary Knight scored when teammates needed her most.

OK, so her clutch shot, a redirection of a puck bombed from near the blue line by teammate Laila Edwards, did nothing more than knot the score at 1-1.

And the tense uncertainty of overtime awaited.

But as soon as she lit the lamp, Knight called game.

“We’re going to win the game! It’s really that simple,” Knight recalled thinking, as she watched players on the bench jumping for joy and heard American fans in the arena chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Sweet Olympic dreams are made of this.

Unable to make a dent on the scoreboard until Knight tipped a puck past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens a scant 124 seconds before a horn blared the end of the third period, the U.S. women snatched the gold medal from the jaws of defeat Thursday and beat their bitter rivals 2-1 in overtime.

“It sucks,” Canadian defender Erin Ambrose said. “We were two minutes and four seconds away … It’s heartbreaking.”

This little miracle on ice added one final glorious chapter to the legend of a player long known as Captain America.

How about this for an example of American spirit too strong to be denied?

During the intermission before overtime, Knight foresaw the future and relayed to the U.S. locker room exactly how it was all going to go down.

“We need a hero,” said Knight, exhorting her exhausted teammates. “And the hero’s in this room.”

That hero proved to be Megan Keller, who scored the golden goal on a move so filthy it probably has already been banned in Canada.

During overtime, when Olympic rules dictate the use of only three skaters per side, the game transforms from a 200-foot battle for every inch into pond hockey limited only by the imagination.

With action so wide open, the only surprise was it took 4 minutes and 7 seconds into the extra period for somebody to score.

The red, white and blue party started when Taylor Heise flipped a bodacious pass from behind her own goal line all the way past center ice, where Keller was literally screaming for attention.

“I chucked it up to her, and I didn’t even see what she did,” Heise said after the medal ceremony. “So I’m very excited to get on my phone, see (a replay) and burn it into my memory.”

It promises to be a memory guaranteed to never fade.

Keller carried the puck into the attack zone and veered sharply to her right. Then she broke the ankles of Canadian defender Claire Thompson with stickwork so wicked hard it probably deserves a nickname (the Killer Keller, perhaps?).

Blazing across the top of the crease, Keller’s shot handcuffed Desbiens so forcefully that Canada’s goalie immediately dropped her head in defeat.

“We talked about it going into overtime: not playing not to lose, playing to win,” Keller said. “I think a lot of times you get a little nervous trying to make a move. I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s take a chance here and try to get to the net.’”

The U.S. women had made a mockery of this tournament, outscoring six opponents 31-1 and rolling into the championship match carrying a streak that amounted to more than five and a half hours of ice time without allowing so much as a goal.

After the Canadians got humiliated 5-0 by the USA during the preliminary round, the noise north of the border was colder than the polar express. “People didn’t believe in us,” captain Marie-Philip Poulin said.

In the United States, pucks are a passion. But in Canada, the sport is a religion.

And the Canadians played like hockey zealots, taking a 1-0 lead in the opening minute of the second period on a shorthanded score by Kristin O’Neill.

As minute after anxious minute ticked off the clock, and scoring chance after scoring chance was thwarted, the Americans looked frustrated but insisted they were undaunted, knowing Knight was on their side.

“She carries that pressure, and she knows we’re relying on her,” said U.S. defender Lee Stecklein, who fully believed somebody would step up in the clutch. “But it’s so not surprising it was (Knight). Because that’s just who she is. And who she has always been.”

Before America’s all-time leading scorer in Olympic competition hopped over the boards against Canada, Knight dropped to one knee earlier this week and proposed marriage to U.S. speedskater Brittany Bowe, who had also packed a suitcase for Italy to compete in her fourth and final Winter Games.

“I think I was more nervous for the proposal than the gold medal game,” Knight admitted.

See? Sometimes even Captain America feels the pressure.

Just never on the ice.

With the gold earned from the last time Knight will ever lace her skates to represent her country, she and Bowe will soon house eight Olympic medals under one roof.

Eight is enough. For two lifetimes. Spent together.