MILAN — No miracle wanted. The USA is on high of the hockey world for the primary time in almost a half-century.
Jack Hughes scored 1:41 into additional time and the U.S. defeated Canada 2-1 within the gold medal closing on the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday, claiming the nation’s third males’s title on the Video games and its first because the “Miracle on Ice” on 1980.
In contrast to that ragtag group of school children that pulled off one of many largest upsets in sports activities historical past 46 years in the past by knocking off the closely favored Soviet Union, the People in Milan had been a machine that rode goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and a stacked roster filled with NHL gamers by way of the event unbeaten.
Hellebuyck was by far one of the best participant on the ice, stopping 41 of the 42 photographs he confronted as Canada tilted the ice towards him. He made the save of the event by getting his stick on the puck on a shot from Devon Toews within the third interval, then minutes later denied Macklin Celebrini on a breakaway — one thing he additionally did to Connor McDavid earlier.
It was solely becoming they wanted to undergo Canada, their northern neighbor that beat them on the 4 Nations Face-Off a yr in the past and has claimed hockey supremacy for fairly a while, successful each worldwide competitors over the previous 16 years that featured the world’s finest gamers.
Not anymore.
Profitable a fast-paced, riveting sport that was full of huge hits and loads of post-whistle altercations, the U.S. bought a purpose from Matt Boldy 6 minutes in and led till Cale Makar tied it late within the second interval. Hellebuyck and the penalty kill was an ideal 18 for 18 on the Olympics.
The U.S. lastly got here by way of after generations of churning out expertise from the grassroots stage like a manufacturing line. All however two of the 25 gamers on the crew went by way of USA Hockey’s Nationwide Crew Growth Program.
That group of 23 consists of captain Auston Matthews, the highest line of Brady and Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Eichel, and the second set of brothers, Jack and Quinn Hughes. A lot of the crew performed collectively both on the program, under-18s, the world junior championship or some mixture of them.
The U.S. successful silenced criticism of basic supervisor Invoice Guerin and his administration group selecting a roster filled with skilled veteran gamers to fill particular roles and leaving 4 of the highest 10 American goal-scorers within the NHL this season at residence. Some choices had been no-doubters, like coach Mike Sullivan giving the web to Hellebuyck, who was one of the best goalie within the event.
Canada, back-to-back Olympic champions in 2010 and ’14 and winners of three of the primary 5, fell quick whereas taking part in with out injured captain Sidney Crosby. The 38-year-old two-time gold medalist and three-time Stanley Cup champion left the quarterfinal sport towards Czechia and sat out the semifinal sport towards Finland.
McDavid, the extensively thought of finest participant on this planet who wore the “C” in Crosby’s absence, suffered one other devastating defeat on the doorstep of a title. He and the Edmonton Oilers have misplaced to Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers within the Stanley Cup Closing every of the previous two years.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
