It’s been quite a last 30 days for U.S. women’s ice hockey player Alex Carpenter. On Jan. 8, she announced her engagement, and on Thursday she scored two goals in the 5-2 opening round win for the U.S. over Finland.
Carpenter is one of at least 35 out LGBTQ Winter Olympians, and she and fiancee Steph Klein, an assistant equipment manager with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, showed off their engagement rings before Carpenter headed to Beijing.
Carpenter was on the 2014 silver medal-winning U.S. Olympic team but was left off the 2018 team. She started her 2022 Olympics in fine fashion with two goals, the first off a terrific pass from Kelly Pannek.
“It was an unbelievable pass,” Carpenter told USA Network following the game. “For a second I didn’t even realize it was on my stick. It was a great job coming in by Kelly there to give me a great feed.”
Teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield also had two goals for the U.S., who win was marred when they lost alternate captain Brianna Decker for the rest of the Games after suffering a lower-body injury.
Team USA plays the ROC (Russian athletes playing under the Olympic banner) on Saturday.
