U.S. defeats Canada for first men’s Olympic hockey

MILAN — Talk about a closing ceremony.

The last medals of the Milan-Cortina Games had been handed out Sunday and these Olympics actually saved the best for last, with the U.S. men’s hockey sport grabbing the last gold with a 2-1 extra time win over Canada.

Of course it went to extra time. How else ought to a U.S.-Canada last end?

Jack Hughes, left alone on the left wing, supplied the profitable purpose 1:41 into extra time, beating Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington cleanly and setting off a wild celebration that left the ice littered with U.S. gloves, sticks and helmets. The Canadian gamers watched from the bench, many with their heads in their gloved fingers.

The other objectives got here from Matt Boldy, who gave the U.S. a lead early in the first period, and Cale Makar, who evened issues for Canada late in the second.

The medal was the thirty third of these Games for the U.S. and the twelfth gold, the most by an American staff in the Winter Olympics. They completed second to Norway, which gained a report 41 medals, 18 of them gold.

The title was the Americans’ first in men’s hockey since 1980 and it got here on the forty sixth anniversary of the “remarkable result on Ice” win over the mighty Soviets, in what was basically a semifinal in the Lake Placid Games.

The Canadian staff the U.S. beat Sunday was no less mighty. It scored 27 occasions on its unbeaten run to the ultimate, with Connor McDavid getting 13 factors, a report for an Olympic event that includes NHL gamers. And with the NHL gamers returning to the Winter Games for the first time in 12 years, Canada might have had more elite-level marquee gamers than any staff in Olympic historical past.

But it was the U.S. that drew first blood, scoring in the sixth minute on a good particular person effort from Boldy. The play began with Toronto Maples Leafs captain Auston Matthews digging the puck out along the boards in the U.S. end. He then fed Boldy, a Minnesota Wild ahead, who flipped the puck forward of him as he entered the Canadian zone.

Boldy had Makar and Devon Toews to beat, which he did by skating between them before backhanding the puck by Binnington for his second purpose of the event.

Back in the Catman Cafe in Mansfield, Mass., where Boldy’s mother, Jen, works as a bartender, the group got here to its ft and cheered. It was the third time in as many elimination video games that Canada trailed coming into the second period.

The turning level in regulation got here in a three-minute span in the center of the second period. First, U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped McDavid on a breakaway. Then less than a minute later, the U.S. took two penalties 28 seconds aside, giving Canada a five-on-three energy play.

U.S. goaltender Connor Hellebuyck blocks a shot by Canada’s Macklin Celebrini during the third period Sunday.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

With the group chanting, “USA! USA!,” Hellebuyck, who stopped 41 photographs in a phenomenal effort, got here up big again and the Americans killed both penalties. The U.S. was 18 for 18 on the penalty kill in the event.

Makar, however, wouldn’t be denied later in the period, sending a blistering wrister from the middle of the fitting circle just over Hellebuyck’s arm 84 seconds before the intermission. The rating stayed that method until Hughes’ purpose.

The sport was arguably the most-anticipated event of the Milan-Cortina Games — in North America, if not in Italy. Hundreds of bars and eating places in the U.S. and Canada had been packed for early morning viewing events. In Toronto, Scotiabank Arena, home to the Maple Leafs, opened its doorways at 7 a.m. and offered $15 tickets to people to watch the sport on TV. In Lake Placid, N.Y., the Olympic Center cafe opened to followers at 8 a.m. while in Milan, the 14,000 people packed into the Santa Giulia Arena had been a sea of pink Canadian jerseys and white American ones.

Six occasions the U.S. has completed second to Canada in an Olympic hockey event, the last in 2010 when Sidney Crosby’s purpose in extra time gave Canada a report ninth gold medal. Crosby, Canada’s captain, didn’t costume for Sunday’s sport after sustaining a lower-body injury earlier in the event.

United States gamers rejoice after defeating Canada for the gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Games on Sunday.

(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

That wasn’t the only signal this sport can be different for the Americans. As the staff was wrapping up its last follow in Milan on Saturday, a spider dropped from the ceiling. Don’t kill it, a local volunteer warned the gamers. In Italy, the looks of a spider is taken into account a signal of success.

With the U.S. beating Canada in extra time in the ladies’s gold-medal Thursday, the Milan-Cortina Games marked the first time the Americans have crushed Canada in both hockey finals. Canada has swept the men’s and girls’s gold 3 times, in 2002, 2010 and 2014.