Brianna Decker part of huge moment on, off ice for U.S. Women's Hockey

Brianna Decker has scored many goals in her international hockey career, but the Dousman native's biggest goal on the ice may have come after her squad accomplished its biggest goal off of it.

The Kettle Moraine Middle School product, who attended high school at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota, helped her team achieve a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships in Michigan in early April, and her goal against Canada in pool play kicked off the proceedings in style. She finished with three goals and nine assists as her team swept the tournament, with an overtime winner by Hilary Knight lifting the Americans past Canada one more time in the title game.

The victory almost never happened, but for good cause. The women's team threatened to boycott the event unless it received an updated package of compensation and marketing from USA Hockey, a standoff that drew national headlines. Settled a mere two days before the event was scheduled to begin, the USA players were able to navigate a quick turnaround to compete at an elite level.

"It was a very emotional time for our team," Decker said. "I think we just had so many emotions going into the tournament. The dispute kind of brought us together. We felt kind of unbreakable going into the tournament. We knew nothing was going to stop us."

Decker, who trained with several members of the team in Boston before getting news that a deal had been reached, scored the first goal of the pool-play battle against Canada, unquestionably the USA's biggest rival on the international stage. Since the United States won the 1998 Olympic gold medal in women's hockey, Canada has won each of the four golds in the meantime, with the USA taking three silvers and a bronze. That included the 2014 Olympics, where Decker came home with a silver.

But despite the program's considerable success, USA Hockey only paid the players roughly $1,000 per month in the six months leading up to Olympic competitions. Under the new agreement, players are paid roughly $70,000 each year, with the opportunity to get paid even more based on Olympic success. The players also receive greater benefits such as maternity leave and marketing equality with the men's team.

"We got mostly everything we were hoping to get," Decker said. "Being treated fairly in regards to what the men get, maybe not from a compensation standpoint, but traveling or expenses per day, that’s what we wanted to focus in on. It was a good step forward for us. I’m really happy that the outcome was what it was."

When USA Hockey unveiled the 2014 Olympic jerseys for the men's and women's teams (still sold in stores during the dispute), the men's gold-medal performances of 1960 and 1980 were patched onto the sleeves, but a reference to the 1998 women's win was missing.

"We were sticking up for ourselves for what we believed was the right thing for us and what we deserved," Decker said of the boycott threat. "It was awesome that we came to an agreement, and now we’re moving forward together. It’s huge for not just for our sport and women’s hockey, but women in general. It’s what we felt was right."

The U.S. has won seven of the past eight world championships, an event second in scope only to the Olympics in the women's hockey world. This year was already a spotlight year for USA Hockey with the event held stateside for just the second time since 2001.

USA Hockey initially attempted to field a team of replacement players, even canvassing the college ranks. It was widely reported that the organization simply couldn't get anybody to say yes.

"The women's hockey community is pretty tight-knit; everybody knows everybody," Decker said. "We obviously used social media for a huge push, and I think that helped bring us all together. It was a pretty exciting-slash-stressful moment. We were happy to put it behind us going into the world championships.

"The biggest thing was how much we were putting on the line. I’m a lot younger, so hopefully I have a longer future in hockey, but there are a lot of players older than me, and this was potentially their last tournament. That was unbelievable to see; we had so many girls on our team who were willing to give up all that just to make a statement and get what we deserve. I think it’s awesome we had so many players willing to do that."

Decker hopes to get home at least once this summer, perhaps assisting at a camp in Green Bay or visiting her family in Lake Country, but her team has only 10 months to go before the next Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Once rosters are finalized, training begins in earnest in August.

Participation in girls hockey continues to rise annually across the country, and Decker said girls hockey in Wisconsin is right on the edge of taking off.

"It will be great if we have some of the girls from our generation on the U.S. team come back and support the programs around Wisconsin," she said. "Obviously I haven’t decided what I'm going to be doing with that, but it would be great for us to reflect and be able to give back to Wisconsin."

Alex Rigsby, a former Arrowhead High School student, played 60 minutes in net during the IIHF Championships and was one of three goalies on the roster.

Listen to the full interview with Brianna Decker on the Initial Reaction Podcast at LakeCountryNow.com.