Recapping the 2026 Gold Medal Game

February 22, 1980. Every American knows that date. Every diehard hockey fan knows that date. The ragtag American team took the ice at Lake Placid against the heavily favored heavyweight Soviet Union team. Against all odds, the US won that game, 4-3, and made the career of this announcer named Al Michaels, who spouted the famous, "Do you believe in miracles?!" line. The US went on to defeat Finland to win the Gold Medal.

Fast forward exactly 46 years. The site is Milan, Italy, and in the Gold Medal Game, it's the two international hockey superpowers, Canada and the US, going at it. The US' appearance in this game meant that our medal drought in Men's Hockey was over; one way or the other, we would medal for the first time in 16 years. But would the big one come to America? That's the thing.

Canada and America were two of 12 countries battling it out. In group play, each country won out, won their respective groups, and received byes straight to the Quarterfinals, where Canada defeated Czechia in OT while the US won in OT against Sweden. In the Semifinals (the medal rounds), Canada defeated Finland, 3-2, after trailing 2-0, while the US blasted Slovakia, 5-1, setting up this Golden matchup.

This year was quite special, as NHL players were in this thing for the first time in a dozen years. On Canada, there were players such as Mitch Marner (Vegas Golden Knights), Brandon Hagel (Tampa Bay Lightning), Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), and of course, Nathan MacKinnon, Devon Toews, and Cale Makar (all from the Avs). The captain of Team Canada: Sidney Crosby, because of course it's Sid. The US has two sets of brothers: Brady (Ottawa Senators) and Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers), and Jack (New Jersey Devils) and Quinn Hughes (Minnesota Wild), Jaccob Slavin (Carolina Hurricanes), Zack Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets), Brock Nelson (Colorado Avalanche) and Team USA's captain, Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs).

The game aired on NBC early in the morning; 8AM in the East Coast, 5AM in the West Coast. It was the St. Louis Blues' Jordan Binnington in net for Canada against the Winnipeg Jets' Connor Hellebuyck for the US. No surprise, it was back and forth, and no surprise, it was tense. But not Four Nations tense. We all remember what happened last year. In the prelims of Four Nations, three fights broke out in the first 10 seconds. Of course, the Olympics had stricter rules when it came to fighting, so we wouldn't see it here. The period was dominated by Canada for the most part, but at 14:00, the Wild's Matt Boldy opened the scoring. Matthews and Quinn Hughes with the helpers. With just under three minutes left in the opening frame, the Golden Knights' Shea Theodore was penalized for hooking, but the US PP was killed off.

After 20: US up 1-0.

Second period was nuts. Canada bombarded Hellebuyck with shots, but Hellebuyck held firm. The Lightning's Jake Guentzel was called for holding, and 27 seconds into Canada's power play, the Bruins' Charlie McAvoy received that same call. A 5-on-3 for 1:33 for Canada. With their big boys out there, it definitely looked like Canada would easily take the lead. However, this was not Playoff Hellebuyck out there. The calendar still said February. Hellebuyck stopped everything, as did the penalty kill. Everything was killed off. However, with under two minutes left, Canada tied it up, and it was the NHL's top defenseman, my boy Cale Makar! The only assist went to another of my boys, Devon Toews!

After 40: USA 1, Canada 1. Oh boy!

Third period was gut check time. Toews had an open net early in the period, but he was stopped. MacKinnon was stopped later on. It was tighter than Mr. Krabs' wallet out there. At 13:26, the Panthers' Sam Bennett was in the box for high-sticking. Double minor. A golden (no pun intended) chance for the US to take the lead, but a funny thing happened: Jack Hughes went from being on the receiving end of a high stick, to dishing out one. After 49 seconds of four-on-four, Canada had a PP for 1:11, but it was killed off, along with the rest of regulation.

After 60: USA 1, Canada 1. We. Have. OVERTIME!!

The overtime rules differed by round. The prelims basically had regular season OT; 5 minutes, 3-on-3, but the shootout had five rounds instead of three. In the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Bronze Medal Game, same rules, except OT is 10 minutes. In the Gold Medal Game, however, it's playoff OT--except that it's 3-on-3 in this case. 20 minute period(s), no shootout, play until someone scores. I mistakenly thought it was 5-on-5, but it's 3-on-3, and I think that's because--for all intents and purposes--there's still some of the regular season left, and NHL players could end up exhausted playing two, three, or four OTs in the Olympics, while 3-on-3 makes things quicker.

The OT was pretty quick. Only 101 seconds. Hellebuyck held firm, and later passed the puck to Werenski, who gave it to Jack Hughes, whose shot made him part of forever.

The final score: USA 2, Canada 1, in overtime. We did it. WE DID IT! For the first time since the Miracle on Ice, and for the first time in my lifetime, the US won the Gold Medal in Men's Hockey. In fact, both the US Men and Women won Gold in hockey! This game was wild and insane! Shots on goal were eight each in the first, 19-8 Canada in the second, 14-10 Canada in the third, and in OT, it was 2-1 US, and the second of the US' two shots was the one that matter the most. In all, 42-28 were the shots in favor of our neighbors to the North. Connor Hellebuyck had 41 saves and an assist on the Golden Goal!

The US' victory coming on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice win over the Soviets was very special. What made it even more special was that the team spent the entire run honoring the late, great Johnny Gaudreau. We lost Johnny Hockey and his brother Matthew Gaudreau on August 29, 2024, and this was the first Olympics since then. Following the victory, we saw a few players hold up a Team USA jersey with Gaudreau's name and the #13, a number that the Montréal Canadiens' Cole Caufield now wears in Gaudreau's memory.

Brock Nelson is a Gold Medalist! To borrow from another Gold Medalist, "Oh, it's true! It's damn true!" In Nelson's case, it runs in the family. His maternal grandfather, Bill Christian, was part of the 1960 US Gold Medal team, and Brock's uncle, Dave Christian, was part of the Miracle on Ice. Nelson is in his first full season with the Avalanche, having been traded from the Islanders last March, and he's having quite the season for the Avs this year.

This was therapeutic for me, not only as a hockey fan, but as an American. Like many Americans, I am not happy with the state of this country, nor am I happy with people supporting the very person damaging the state of this country. The fact that even just a sprinkle of Team USA's players support that five-letter expletive really bothers me, especially since I watch sports to get away from that, as well as the sad truth that the whole "keep politics out of sports" line is very one-sided (that's another story).

In addition, I'm a jaded American hockey fan who has seen the guys disappoint too much for too long. You know that stuff that people say about the Maple Leafs in the playoffs? It can be said for America in Olympic Men's Hockey. When the chips are down, so are we. It's why I watched the women only in 2018, and of course, the USA women WON. They won again this year, so for the first time ever, the USA won Gold in both Men's and Women's Hockey.

This was a game for the ages. As an Avs fan, I got to see eight players participate. Six of the eight got medals! Brock Nelson has the Gold, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews have Silver, and Artturi Lekhonen and Joel Kiviranta have Bronze for Finland. It was a terrific outing overall, but that's well and done. The next Winter Games will take place at the French Alps in 2030. In just a few short days, however, the NHL will be back in action, playing out the final 51 days of the regular season starting on Wednesday!