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In 2018, Aerin Frankel was at home with her parents in Chappaqua, sitting in front of the television, watching the United States women’s hockey team take on Canada in the Olympic gold medal game in South Korea.
She was set to head to Northeastern in a matter of months to start her collegiate hockey career. Yet, as she watched the U.S. women defeat Canada in a shootout, she didn’t truly believe that future was possible.
“I don’t think when you’re a little kid watching those games you truly believe that you will one day be in those shoes,” Frankel told The Post in a recent phone interview.
In 2022, the Westchester native didn’t get the call to go to Beijing despite thinking she had a solid shot, as did her Northeastern coach, Dave Flint.
At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Frankel’s moment has arrived.
When the 26-year-old goalie got the call on New Year’s Eve from Katie Million, director of women’s national team programs, she didn’t wait long to celebrate. After learning she would make her Olympic debut this month, she called her parents, Peter and Deborah, right after hanging up.
“Since the day of choosing hockey, they’ve been along for the ride,” Frankel said. “So, a lot of ups and downs obviously in a career, and they’ve been alongside me for all of it. It was not only a special day for me, but also for my family, and I’m excited for them to share that with me.”
It was the confirmation that Flint believed Frankel needed. Despite being the national team’s No. 1 goalie for a few years, there is always comfort in a tangible vote of confidence.
“I think she always had it in the back of her head like, ‘I just got to hear the words that I’m on the team,’ ” Flint told The Post. “So, I think [she was] obviously very excited and happy, but I also think she was a little bit relieved to be like ‘OK, I did it.’ ”
Frankel made her debut with the senior U.S. women’s national team during the 2019-20 Rivalry Series against Canada, and has since competed in five IIHF Women’s World Championships (2021-2025), earning two gold and three silver medals. Frankel was the netminder in the most recent Rivalry Series in December, when Team USA completed the first-ever tournament sweep.
Frankel has cemented her status as the U.S. No. 1 in the PWHL, which is in its third season and in existence for its first Olympic cycle this year.
The Boston Fleet star is second in the PWHL in goals against average (1.35), and ranks second behind Montreal’s Ann-Renée Desbiens (.954) in save percentage (.946).
Frankel and Desbiens are expected to be starting in net when the U.S. and Canada — the gold medal co-favorites — have their highly anticipated preliminary-round showdown Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. ET.
Frankel’s family will be there to watch her fulfill her dream, a player born in what’s not known as a hockey hotbed.
After Frankel’s parents took their young daughter to the rink for the first time, she continued to pester them about going back. Then it turned into pestering them for hockey lessons after she watched a couple of skaters who put on the gear.
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Later, it became about letting Frankel play in net. Eventually, she began playing at Westchester Skating Academy in Elmsford.
“The goalie plays the whole game, and I think I liked that kind of mentality of being the last line of defense,” Frankel says now. “I’m a super-competitive person, and I think our position really lets us showcase that.”
Similar to the 2018 gold medal match that Frankel watched as a teenager — which ended on Maddie Rooney’s save in the sixth round of the shootout — big moments often come down to the goalkeeper, and that will only be elevated on the world’s biggest stage.
“If a goalie has an off day, everybody in the building knows it,” Flint said. “But if the third-line center has an off day, the coaches know it but maybe not a ton of people know it.
“It takes a special person to want to be a goalie with that magnifying glass on them,” he added. “You have to be willing to understand that you’re going to be under that microscope in a big spotlight and it can go really well or it could go really wrong. You have to be able to deal with that whatever happens and manage that.”
Hilary Knight, a four-time Olympic medalist and the face of U.S. women’s hockey, doesn’t believe that will be an issue for the first-timer Frankel.
“She’s an amazing talent. I think people get to have the pleasure of seeing that when she’s with the Boston Fleet, just throwing every puck aside, essentially,” Knight told The Post. “She helps us win games, and I think that’s really hard to do in that position.”
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