MILAN, ITALY – Just three days after Team USA’s women’s ice hockey team won gold, Jack Hughes’ overtime winner gave the USA men’s hockey team its first gold medal at the Winter Olympics since the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ team.
Team Canada’s captain, Sidney Crosby, missed the game due to a lower-body injury but Canada made a valiant effort.
The USA prevailed despite being on their heels during the second half of the game. Canada outshot the USA 42-28 and Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves.
USA Comes Out Flying
Through the first five minutes of the game, Canada had four shots on goal while the USA had none, but the USA made their first count.
Matt Boldy flipped the puck ahead of himself and skated into the offensive zone where he split the defense and scored on Canada goalie, Jordan Binnington to give the USA a 1-0 lead at exactly the six minute-mark. The goal was assisted by USA captain Auston Matthews and Quinn Hughes, who picked up a point in his sixth-straight game at the Olympics, breaking a record held by former USA and NHL star, Zach Parise.
At 17:03, Canadian defenseman Shea Theodore took the game’s first penalty, a two-minute minor for hooking USA’s Brock Nelson. On the ensuing power play, Matthews received a pass at the back door but chose to pass the puck instead of shooting it, which let Canada off the hook.
Canada Takes Control
The USA almost made it 2-0 when Brock Nelson intercepted a pass from Canadian defenseman Devon Toews in the offensive zone, but his quick shot was turned aside by Binnington.
Halfway through the second period, Connor McDavid went in on a breakaway, but a good backcheck by USA defenseman Brock Faber combined with McDavid not shooting the puck quick enough led to the best player in the world missing his chance.
At 9:27, Jake Guentzel took a two minute holding penalty and just 27 seconds later, Charlie McAvoy took a penalty, creating a 5-on-3 advantage for Canada for one minute and 35 seconds. Canada got a couple of shots on goal but failed to capitalize on the 5-on-3, which drew a big cheer from the USA supporters in the crowd.
Towards the end of the second period, the action picked up. Canadian superstar defenseman Cale Makar tied the game at 18:16 of the second period with a wrist shot from the right face-off dot that beat Hellebuyck inside the far post. Devon Toews assisted the goal.
Then USA’s Brock Faber took a shot from the point that rang off the post and cross bar in the minute before the period ended. The USA went in like a lion and left like a lamb in the second period and Canada had taken control of the game.
Hellebuyck Keeps USA in the Game
The problems that Team USA was having in the second period carried over into the third period. Canada came close to getting the go-ahead goal just one minute into the period when Canadian forward Mitch Marner passed to the net-front to Toews who had a wide open net but Hellebuyck stopped him with a clutch stick save.
Canada kept the pressure on and 19-year-old Canadian phenom Macklin Celebrini had a breakaway five minutes into the period that was again stopped by Hellebuyck.
At 13:26, Canadian forward Sam Bennett high-sticked Jack Hughes and was called for a four-minute double-minor penalty. The USA managed just a few shots on goal on the power play and Binnington came up huge for Canada on one point-shot that was redirected.
With just over a minute remaining in the four-minute power play at 16:37, Jack Hughes took a penalty for high-sticking Bo Horvat. There was 4-on-4 hockey for just under a minute and a 5-on-4 man advantage for Canada for just over a minute.
Canada sustained offensive zone time but were unable to get a goal past another strong American penalty killing effort that culminated in Nelson’s diving clearance near the end of the power play. The USA killed 18-of-18 penalties in this tournament.
USA Avenges 4 Nations Defeat
The gold medal game went to 3-on-3 continuous overtime.
The Americans got the first dangerous scoring opportunity when Quinn Hughes ripped a one-timer that Binnington slid over and barely saved with his glove.
Then, his brother, Jack, got on the ice.
Jack Hughes managed to poke the puck around Cale Makar at his own blue line, before skating up ice into the offensive zone. Zach Werenski won a battle with Nathan MacKinnon in the corner for a 50/50 puck and saw Hughes streaking in towards the backdoor. Werenski passed to Jack Hughes, who collected the puck smoothly and fired a quick, low wrist shot past Binnington, just 1:41 into overtime.
It was over in a flash.
The USA avenged their defeat in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off Final when they lost to Canada in overtime. After receiving their medals, American players carried a USA jersey with the name “Gaudreau” on the back to honor their late teammate, the American ice hockey superstar and New Jersey native, Johnny Gaudreau who passed away in 2024.
One of the things that Billy Guerin and I talked about from the very beginning was trying to build a team in the true sense of the word. We looked at a deep group of American talent and these decisions were very difficult, they weren’t easy…if you look at the way this group was constructed, there was a thought process that we had players that could play in all situations and, maybe the most important aspect of it is the character of the group and the personality of the team… this team was built with personality in mind. We were loaded with personality up and down our lineup. – USA Head Coach Mike Sullivan
Canada were denied a 10th Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey and the USA won its third and first in 46 years.
Captain Auston Matthews offered his perspective on the growth of American ice hockey that’s taken placec over the last decade and how special it is to win a gold medal in ice hockey at the Olympics for the United States.
It feels like its been too long. Over the last 10-15 years there’s been a big upcharge of American hockey players coming through in the NHL that are world-class players. This is the first time in my NHL career that we (NHL players) have been able to compete in the Olympics. It meant a lot to us to have that opportunity to put USA hockey back on the map and we did that. The goal was to come here and win a gold medal and we did that.
