USA stun Canada in overtime to win first Olympic men’s ice hockey gold since 1980 | Winter Olympics 2026

The United States won its third Olympic men’s hockey title — and first since the 1980 Miracle on Ice team — with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold medal game Sunday at the Milan Cortina Games. In the third Olympic final between the border rivals and the first since Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in 2010, the Americans seized their moment despite long dominance to end a 46-year wait and dethrone the sport’s most decorated nation on its biggest stage.

Canada was chasing a record 10th gold medal in men’s ice hockey, but it was the United States that pulled off the biggest moment with Jack Hughes’ game-winning goal less than two minutes into overtime and a superhuman effort from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, capping an unbeaten run in the first Olympic tournament featuring National Hockey League players in 12 years.

“I can’t even believe it,” said Hughes, the 24-year-old New Jersey Devils star who scored the decisive goal after losing at least one of his teeth when he hit his face in the third period. “I mean, it’s such an amazing game, USA-Canada. Such a good game. There are so many great players. We’re a great team. That’s exactly how we wanted it to go. We’re the underdogs to Canada. [but we] beat them. It could have gone either way.

The United States, greeted by a chorus of vigorous boos when they took the ice for warm-ups, defeated a Canadian team filled with NHL stars and a hostile crowd. It already seemed like there were more maple leaf shirts in the building and along the hallways of the building. From the first moments of Sunday’s match, this was also the case.

The Milan Cortina Olympics medal final game came a year after the North American rivals met twice at the height of political tensions between the countries in the 4-nation showdown, the first international tournament featuring the NHL’s top players since 2016. The Americans won 3-1 in the round-robin played at Montreal’s Bell Center that saw the American anthem booed and featured three fights in the first nine seconds, while Canada won the final 3-2. overtime.

Similar extracurricular activities were still unlikely on Sunday, given automatic expulsions for fighting under Olympic rules. Yet it took less than three minutes for tempers to flare as a group of players converged in front of the U.S. net, exchanging not-so-subtle jokes and shoving as the crowd rose to its feet in a thunderous roar.

The United States brought intensity to its arch-rivals from the first shift, winning every loose puck battle amid bellicose chants of “USA!” and “CAN-A-DA!”. But they didn’t get a shot on goal until exactly six minutes later, when Matt Boldy skated between two redshirts before beating Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington.

Canada’s first best attempt at equalizing came midway through the second period thanks to Connor McDavid, who burst in alone on a clean breakaway only to be denied by Hellebuyck. Moments later, a holding call on Jake Guentzel gave the Canadiens their first power play, and a minor hook to Charlie McAvoy quickly turned the game into a 90-second two-man advantage. But the short-handed Americans – who held a 100% record entering the evening – held on once again.

The Canadians were outshooting the United States 25-15 two minutes into the second intermission when Cale Makar sent a tracer through Hellebuyck’s pads and arms, tying the score at one goal apiece and setting the stage for the white-knuckle finale.

As the final stanza began, the United States was outnumbered more than two to one and clinging on for dear life, their attack stalled and in ruins. But they got a reprieve when the referees missed a blatant penalty for too many men on the ice shortly before a double minor penalty against Canadian Sam Bennett gave them a four-minute power play with six minutes left in regulation. After the United States failed to score and then killed a brief Canada individual advantage following Hughes’ high stick, the game headed into an extra period of three-on-three sudden-death hockey.

It would be Hughes – and the United States – who delivered the final blow 1 minute 41 seconds into overtime, latching onto Zach Werenski’s pass and firing a shot through Binnington’s legs, unleashing a wild jumper from the American bench as the Canadian players stared in the horrible stillness of what could have been.

The match was arguably the hottest ticket of the Milano Cortina Games and that was evident in the scenes outside the gates, where hordes of Canadian and American fans in hockey sweaters were pounding beers and roaring through songs and chants in the glorious sunshine.

For days, the Italian media had been plagued by reports that Donald Trump would attend Sunday’s match and the closing ceremony in Verona. Beltway watchers opted instead for FBI Director Kash Patel, who arrived in Italy on Thursday and watched the United States win alongside American snowboarder Nick Baumgartner from a hospitality suite perched above the lower bowl. Trump wasted no time celebrating the winners after Hughes’ decision. “Congratulations to our great American ice hockey team. THEY WON GOLD. WOW!” he wrote on Truth Social, adding: “WHAT A GAME! »

The madness was no less intense in North America, where authorities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border relaxed alcohol laws to allow early morning puck drop. NBC executives were no doubt salivating after Friday’s semifinal between the United States and Slovakia averaged 8.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-gold medal Olympic men’s hockey game in American history outside of the 2002 semifinal between the United States and Russia.

It was the third time the United States and Canada played in the gold medal game and the first since 2010, when Crosby etched his name in Olympic lore by scoring in overtime to seal a 3-2 win over the Americans at home. Crosby, 38, was still on Canada’s team four Olympics later, but he did not dress for Sunday’s game after injuring his knee in Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over the Czech Republic.

Hellebuyck stopped 41 of the 42 shots he faced, improving on his tournament-best save percentage (0.956) and goals-against average (1.18). The United States and Canada were two of three teams participating in the Olympic tournament, alongside quarterfinalist Sweden, which was made up entirely of NHL players.

“Amazing play from Hellebuyck,” Hughes said. “He was by far our best player.”

As U.S. players celebrated on the ice, Werenski and Matthew Tkachuk navigated the chaos by wearing a number 13 jersey in tribute to Johnny Gaudreau, the U.S. and Columbus Blue Jackets player who was struck and killed by a car with his brother in 2024.

Forty-six years to the day after the United States’ famous victory over the Soviet Union at Lake Placid, the Americans were Olympic champions for the third time and the first time on foreign soil.

“It’s been a long time,” U.S. center Jack Eichel said. “I know what the 1980 team did and what it meant to the generations that followed. We made our own history here. It’s a very proud moment for all the guys in this room.”