PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Before Meghan Duggan’s head hit the pillow at 4:30 a.m. Friday, roughly 12 hours after her United States women’s hockey team beat Canada to break a 20-year drought, she tucked her gold medal under the covers right next to her.

“We did it,” she said to herself again and again as her eyes finally closed on a night to remember for both the United States team and women’s sports in America.

Yes, the Americans did it — they beat their rivals in the hardest of hard-fought finals. There may be little competition in women’s hockey outside the two final teams. But the Americans’ story line is even richer than this thrilling victory that was the pinnacle of the Pyeongchang Olympics for the United States, which is in danger of finishing these Games with its lowest medal count since 1998, back when the Games didn’t include many of the extreme sports in which Americans excel.

Their victory meant so much more than just a puck flying into the net to end a tense shootout.

“We all knew that this game was much bigger than just a game,” Duggan said. “It was on all of our minds going in.”