When China’s Le Mi (Hannah Miller) zinged the puck past Japanese goalie Nana Fujimoto to give the host nation a 2-1 upset victory on Sunday, it wasn’t just the first shootout winner of the 2022 Olympics.

This was also the first time the Chinese women have ever triumphed in a shootout at the Games, truly making it another great moment in women’s hockey history.

And on Tuesday, it was Japan's turn to celebrate after an historic 3-2 shootout win over Czechia, thanks to national team legend Hanae Kubo.

Love them or hate them, shootouts have provided some of this sport’s most unforgettable IIHF drama.

Starting with the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Calgary, shootouts are no longer a factor in gold medal games, as we witnessed with Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin’s spectacular winner versus the U.S. in unlimited 3-on-3 overtime. They still take place after overtime in group stage games or a 10-minute overtime in quarter-final and semi-final games. 

From displays of pure skill to classic medal-winning moments, let’s take a quick look back at some great shootout goals.

Angela Ruggiero (USA, 2005 Women’s Worlds) 

In 1963, the Soviet Union kicked off a run of nine straight men’s World Championship gold medals. In 2005, the Canadian women were on the brink of equalling that record, having won eight straight Women’s Worlds between 1990 and 2004. But Angela Ruggiero had other ideas.

Seeking their first world title ever, Ruggiero’s Americans had outshot Canada 49-26 through regulation and sudden-death in Linkoping, Sweden, but the gold medal game remained deadlocked at 0-0. The future IIHF and Hockey Hall of Fame defenceman confronted legendary Canadian netminder Kim St-Pierre in the second round of the shootout.

Ruggiero drew St-Pierre out of the net and lofted a backhand over her pads. She humorously described the aftermath of her goal in her 2006 autobiography  Breaking the Ice: “I was so in the moment that I forgot how to celebrate, opting for the Ray Bourque one-knee-forward-fist-pump.”

The shootout extended to a fourth round, but when U.S. goalie Chanda Gunn finally foiled Caroline Ouellette, it was all over, and a wild American celebration ensued.

Pernilla Winberg & Maria Rooth (SWE, 2006 Olympics)

Sweden’s 3-2 semi-final shootout win over the Americans in Turin, Italy remains the biggest upset in Olympic history. Huge credit goes to Damkronorna goalie Kim Martin, who made 37 saves for coach Peter Elander’s underdogs.

Yet without shootout goals from 16-year-old Olympic rookie Pernilla Winberg and veteran all-star Maria Rooth, the upset – against a U.S. team that seemed disjointed after leaving longtime captain Cammi Granato off the roster – wouldn’t have happened.

Interestingly, both Winberg, who was credited with the shootout winner, and Rooth, who put the final puck in the net, made the same shot selection versus the U.S.’s Chanda Gunn. A quick release low to the stick side was the winning formula.

Sweden advanced to become the only non-North American team ever to appear in an Olympic women’s hockey final, claiming the silver medal with a 4-1 loss to Canada.

Klara Hymlarova (CZE, 2016 Women’s Worlds)

Kamloops, British Columbia was the site of the longest group-stage shootout ever in senior IIHF women’s competition. It took 14 shots for the Czechs to earn a 3-2 Women’s Worlds victory over Japan on 31 March, 2016.

At the time, Klara Hymlarova was the designated shootout specialist for the Czechs, who were making their top-level Women’s Worlds debut. Just 17, the Opava-born forward scored three times in the game-winning shots competition, similar to Jonathan Toews’ feat in Canada’s 2007 World Junior semi-final win over the Americans.

After Hymlarova went forehand, backhand, forehand to outwit Japan’s Nana Fujimoto, it was up to Czech goalie Klara Peslarova to foil Rui Ukita’s final attempt with a pokecheck. The Czechs rejoiced as they advanced to the quarter-finals, ultimately finishing sixth.

Olga Sosina (RUS, 2016 Women’s Worlds)

Without Olga Sosina’s magical puckhandling, the Russians wouldn’t have brought home their last IIHF medal from Kamloops. The tense bronze medal game against Finland remained 0-0 through overtime. Sosina, coming off her first season with Agidel Ufa, skated in on goalie Meeri Raisanen in the shootout, cut to the backhand, and lifted it home on the stick side. Game over.

IIHF.com reported on the pro-league backstory to this nifty goal: “Sosina said her familiarity with Raisanen as a former SKIF Nizhni Novgorod teammate may have helped, as they used to practice shootouts together after practice. ‘I wasn’t sure if she still remembers my move or not,’ said Sosina.”

Melodie Daoust (CAN, 2018 Olympics)

Ever since Peter Forsberg scored his famous one-handed goal on Canada’s Corey Hirsch to give Sweden its first Olympic men’s hockey gold medal ever in 1994, we’ve seen that move deployed everywhere from junior hockey to the NHL.

In any case, it’s still a spectacular option. And for Canada’s Melodie Daoust to pull it off against U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney in the 2018 Olympic final in PyeongChang was a bold gambit indeed – even if the Canadians were ultimately forced to settle for silver.

When asked post-Olympics who women’s hockey’s best stickhandler was, U.S. superstar Hilary Knight said: “Melodie Daoust is probably the filthiest I’ve ever seen, in the best way. That shootout goal of hers was just slippery smooth.”

Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson (USA, 2018 Olympics)

This shootout moment needs no introduction. Forward Jocelyne Lamoureux Davidson’s ultra-inventive “Oops! I Did It Again” move (title courtesy of Britney Spears) changed American hockey history. It was the deciding goal that gave the U.S. women their first Olympic gold medal since the inaugural 1998 tournament in Nagano, Japan. Archrival Canada could only wonder what might have been after U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney denied Meghan Agosta on her final try.

In her 2021 book Dare to Make History: Chasing a Dream and Fighting for Equity, co-authored with her twin sister Monique Lamoureux-Morando, Lamoureux-Davidson breaks down the mechanics of her goal on Canadian netminder Shannon Szabados: “I opened my blade, faked a shot with my weight on my right leg, and let my left leg kick back, getting the goalie to flinch at the movement. I slid the puck to my backhand and transferred all my weight to my left leg, getting Szabados to drop to her knees and lean all the way to her right. Finally, I brought the puck back to my forehand and had a foot and a half to slide the puck into an open net.”

Annie Pankowski (USA, 2019 Women’s Worlds)

It was a strange atmosphere at the Espoo Metro Areena during the gold-medal shootout between the defending champion Americans and host Finland on 14 April 2019. Minutes earlier, Petra Nieminen’s apparent overtime winner had been disallowed after a lengthy video review, stunning the partisan crowd of 6,053.

However, Annie Pankowski, who had scored the U.S.’s lone goal in regulation time, didn’t allow the circumstances to distract her in her one-on-one duel with heroic Finnish goalie Noora Raty, who finished with 51 saves. The University of Wisconsin captain’s forehand deke fooled Raty and gave the Americans a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

After the failure of Susanna Tapani’s daring attempt to beat U.S. goalie Alex Rigsby’s by stickhandling with the tip of her blade, the game ended 2-1. The Americans were five-time World Champions.