2026 Winter Olympics
US Stuns Canada to claim Men's Hockey Gold at 2026 Olympics
The United States captured its first Olympic men's hockey gold since 1980 by defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime during the gold-medal final at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Jack Hughes scored the game-winner at 1:41 of 3-on-3 overtime, propelling Team USA past the heavily favoured Canadians at the Milano Santagostino Ice Hockey Arena, as reported by CTV News and NBC Olympics.
Matt Boldy gave the US a 1-0 lead six minutes into the first period, but Cale Makar equalised late in the second for Canada, forcing overtime after a scoreless third despite Canada outshooting the US 41-26 overall.
Your 2026 Olympic Men's Ice Hockey CHAMPIONS 🇺🇸 #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/DPgSusdJWb
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) February 22, 2026
US goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stood tall with key saves, including on Connor McDavid's breakaway, while the Americans' penalty kill went a perfect 18-for-18 in the tournament, as reported by Fox Sports and The Guardian.
"It's an unbelievable, unreal game by our team. Ballsy, gutsy win. "That's American hockey right there," Jack Hughes said post-game, as quoted by NBC Olympics.
The victory, 46 years to the day after the 1980 Soviet upset, featured tributes to late US forward Johnny Gaudreau, with his No. 13 jersey carried on the ice, reported by Fox Sports.
Canada settled for silver in its fourth straight gold-medal hockey matchup since NHLers joined the Olympics, extending its record of nine prior titles but falling short again.
Team USA completed an unbeaten run in the first full NHL Olympics in over a decade, with women's gold already secured earlier, per Olympics.com and NHL.com.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
