US hockey captain Meghan Duggan marries longtime Canadian rival Gillian Apps

Martin Rose/Getty Images

Years of competing against each other in one of the fiercest rivalries in sports was not enough to keep Team USA captain Meghan Duggan and longtime Canadian rival Gillian Apps from falling in love.

• After years of heated competition, Team USA hockey captain Meghan Duggan and longtime Canadian rival Gillian Apps married in Pownal, Maine Saturday afternoon.
• The women's hockey rivalry between the United States and Canada is one of the fiercest across sports, with the two nations competing against each other for every gold medal since the inception of the women's world championship in 1990.
• Apps has the advantage in head-to-head competition over her now-wife after guiding the Canadian team to gold medal finishes in 2006, 2010, and 2014 en route to an undefeated Olympic career.

Four years after competing for a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, U.S. women's hockey captain Meghan Duggan and longtime Canadian rival Gillian Apps came face to face once again.

But this time, it was to exchange their wedding vows.

According to Gabrielle Scheder-Bieschin at TeamUSA.org, Duggan and Apps married in Pownal, Maine Saturday in front of family, friends, and fellow Olympian bridesmaids Kacey Bellamy, Brianna Decker, and Erika Lawler.

Duggan currently plays for the Boston Pride of the NWHL while Apps works as an assistant coach for Boston College's women's hockey program. But both players are best known for their international playing careers.

A third-generation professional hockey player, Apps scored 50 goals and 100 points for Team Canada before retiring from Olympic hockey in 2015. Her father, Syl Apps Jr., spent ten seasons in the NHL, and her grandfather, Syl Apps, was a Hall of Famer and longtime center for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Duggan famously led Team USA to its first Olympic gold medal in 20 years with an exciting win against Canada in Pyeongchang, but her wife has the advantage in head-to-head competition. The forward guided the Canadian team to gold medals in 2006, 2010, and 2014 en route to an undefeated Olympic career. Her final two medals came against Duggan and the United States in the Olympic finals.

Duggan won two Olympic silver medals, seven world titles and six Four Nations Cups in international play. Combined, the couple owns four Olympic gold medals and ten world titles.

The women's hockey rivalry between the United States and Canada is one of the fiercest across sports. The nations have competed against each other for every gold medal since the inception of the women's world championship in 1990.

But the two sides managed to set their differences aside for the weekend, with both teams congratulating the couple this weekend:

Duggan and Apps are not the first couple to overcome the U.S.-Canada hockey rivalry. Four-time Olympic medalists and former captains for opposing sides Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette announced the arrival of their first child last November.