United States v Canada: Gold Medal Game - 2024 IIHF Women — U.S. Captain Hilary Knight, Gold Medal Game - 2024 IIHF Women's World Championship - Source: Getty

PWHL star Amanda Pelkey and others react as Hilary Knight sets world assist record at IIHF Women’s World Championship

Modified Apr 21, 2025 17:49 GMT

Representing the U.S. for the 15th time at the IIHF Women's World Championship, Boston Fleet superstar Hilary Knight dished out three assists on Tuesday to reach the 50th of her tournament career. This milestone helped her set the record for assists in the tournament.

A nine-time gold medalist at the World Championship and the captain of the U.S. squad, Knight heard plenty of applause from her teammates and supporters after eclipsing the record.

Fleet teammate Amanda Pelkey shared her excitement for Knight on her Instagram story, captioning it with a saluting face emoji. Knight and Pelkey also won gold at the 2016 and 2017 World Championships.

Amanda Kessel, a four-time gold medalist with the U.S. at the World Championship (2013, 2017, 2019 and 2023), also showed her appreciation for her former teammate on Instagram.

A pioneer for women’s tennis and one of the sport’s most legendary players, Billie Jean King, gave Knight a celebratory “Cheers” caption via her Instagram story. King is a PWHL Advisory Board Member, and the league named its annual MVP trophy in her honor.

The United States shut out Switzerland 5-0 in the final game of the preliminary round of the World Championship. Knight, who has six points (two goals, four assists) through the first four games, is tied for second in the tournament.

The U.S. will take on Germany in the quarter-final on Thursday.

Hilary Knight congratulates Alex Ovechkin after breaking NHL goal record

Hilary Knight, captain of the Boston Fleet, paid her respect to a fellow captain. After Washington Capitals superstar and captain Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th NHL goal to surpass Wayne Gretzky's record on April 6, Knight paid homage to the Russian scoring machine.

The following day, Knight and the Fleet posted a video on Instagram to pay tribute to Ovi.

“Hey Ovi! Just wanted to send along a huge congratulations on breaking the all-time goals record. Incredible achievement,” Knight said. “Congratulations. It’s been an honor to watch you every single night. Enjoy the moment. Congrats, GOAT!”

Knight paces the PWHL with 28 points through 27 games this season, while her 15 goals rank second. After captaining the United States to gold at the World Championship, she was named the 2023 IIHF Female Player of the Year.

About the author

Sharisse Cohee is an NHL and PWHL journalist at Sportskeeda with an associate degree in Media Communications with an emphasis in Cross-Media Journalism. While earning the degree, Sharisse was the Editor-in-Chief of the campus newspaper and also became the school's resident sports reporter.

Sharisse earned a bachelor's degree in English from Arizona State University's online campus, graduating with magna cum laude honors. Both degrees influenced her career as an NHL and PWHL writer, allowing Sharisse to weave together her passions for writing and sports.

Sharisse was a sports copywriter/editor at The Upper Deck, a trading card company in Southern California, for two and a half years. She wrote creative and informative copy about hockey players and athletes from various sports, printed on the backs of the trading cards.

Her favorite teams are the Anaheim Ducks, because she was born and raised in Southern California, and also the Pittsburgh Penguins because Sidney Crosby is her all-time favorite NHL player.

When not writing about hockey, Sharisse loves fantasy sports. She plays in hockey, basketball and football fantasy leagues. She lives in San Diego, California, so has the luxury of going to the beach often. She also enjoys working out and watching true crime documentaries, game shows, and binge-worthy TV series.

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