From rivals to life partners: Canadian forward ties knot with U.S. counterpart

Love can be in the air anywhere, even in the middle of a fierce, high-stakes hockey rivalry.

Just ask former Canadian women's hockey team forward Gillian Apps and American forward Meghan Duggan, who married this past weekend in Pownal, Maine.

“True love overcomes even the largest of rivalries,” the U.S. Olympic Committee tweeted with a picture of the happy couple.

“From competitors on the ice to partners for life,” tweeted the Canadian Olympic Committee.

Apps and Duggan have been part of easily the top rivalry in their sport.

Canada and the U.S., have squared off in five of six Olympic finals since the sport joined the Winter Games program in 1998.

Apps, a 34-year-old from Toronto, was part of Canadian teams that beat Duggan’s Americans for Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014. Apps also won gold with Canada in 2006.

Duggan, 31, was captain of the U.S. team that beat Canada in a shootout to claim the title this year in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but Apps had already retired.

“The most incredible day of my entire life,” Duggan wrote on Instagram.

“Nothing but smiles after this amazing weekend,” Apps wrote.

Apps is the granddaughter of Hockey Hall of Fame member Syl Apps.

They’re not the only highprofile, cross-border couple in women’s hockey.

Caroline Ouellette, Canada’s captain at the 2014 Winter Games, and former U.S. team captain Julie Chu had a baby daughter Nov. 5, 2017.

Soccer also has seen North American rivals unite.

Canadian international goalkeeper Erin McLeod married former U.S. international Ella Masar, who has since secured Canadian citizenship.