The puck might have still been moving in the Team Canada net behind netminder Jordan Binnington when the gloves, sticks and helmets flew off the Team USA bench and onto the ice at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
That’s how quickly a game that seemed for a long time like it would be lost, turned into a frenzied celebration for the first United States men’s hockey gold medal since the 1980 “Miracle On Ice”.
From the outset of this classic tilt between the only undefeated teams at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics – many have already called this gold medal game one of the greatest hockey games ever – it seemed like 60 minutes would never be enough for these two hockey giants to settle things.
It wasn’t. Although it didn’t take Jack Hughes much time, just 1:41 into overtime, to hunt down a loose puck to Binnington’s right and give Team USA a 2-1 victory in the biggest game of their collective lives.
“That game was as hectic as it could be, and to have this medal around our necks right now is just the best feeling I'll ever feel in hockey, and to do it with that group of guys, I feel like we deserve it, all of us,” said U.S. forward Dylan Larkin.
“I mean, that goal going in there. Jacko, that moment, I can't wait to watch it,” Larkin added. “The difference between a guy that wants the puck on his stick in that moment, if you watch the video, I turn and go back [to the bench]. He wants it, and he put it in the net. That's what superstar players do, and just that moment for us, that's going to stick with me for the rest of my life.”
What Larkin won’t be in a hurry to do is to go and watch the many replays where Team Canada seemed destined to run away with this game were it not for U.S. netminder Connor Hellebuyck and plain old misses.
“That guy should never buy a drink in the state of Michigan ever again,” Larkin said of Hellebuyck’s home state.
“The chances they had and how the puck didn't go in. It's kind of mind-blowing, and I'll watch the golden goal many, many times, but it'll take me a while to watch how they missed all those chances,” Larkin added.
Those misses will become part of the lore of this frenetic game, a game played at breakneck speed until Hughes suddenly stopped the soundtrack of the game with his goal.
In the moments after, American players skated from one to another, searching for someone else to hug, to hoist in the air. The ice was theirs. Many searched out family in the stands pointing and raising their arms in celebration, a celebration that is in some ways decades in the making for USA Hockey.
A few feet away from the euphoria, Team Canada players sat somberly on their bench. Binnington, who had been excellent throughout this tournament, stayed on one knee nearby. Nathan MacKinnon, too, stood watching the American celebration.
For the Canadians who won gold in Sochi in 2014, the last time National Hockey League players took part in the Olympics, and before that in 2010 in Vancouver, this will be a long time getting over.
After the Americans took a 1-0 lead on a nifty Matt Boldy move early in the first period, the Canadians owned the game.
From the second period on, Canada, playing without captain Sidney Crosby who missed the last two games of this tournament with a lower body injury, out-shot the U.S. by a 34-20 margin.
“That's one of the best games I've ever seen a team play that I've been a part of,” said Drew Doughty, a two-time gold medalist with Team Canada in 2010 and 2014.
“I thought we were so good tonight, especially for the last 40 minutes. Yeah, shocking,” he added. “I thought it was going to turn out different. We bonded so well together. I’m still going to be friends with these guys for the rest of my life. That's never going to go anywhere, but it would've been nice seeing them in 20 years with a gold medal to share.”
The Canadians had multiple glorious chances yet Hellebuyck was otherworldly. He got a stick on a Devon Toews shot that seemed destined to find the back of the net that will go down as one of the greatest Olympic saves of all time.
Other Canadian chances that also seemed like sure goals, missed the mark.
‘He channeled his Jimmy Craig tonight. He was unbelievable,” said Team USA defenceman Charlie McAvoy said of Hellebuyck, referring to 1980 U.S. netminder, Jim Craig.
“He had so many saves, time and time again. Like the one in the third on Toews, we’re going down the bench saying, ‘That’s the one.’ The TSN turning point, And then he made a couple more,” McAvoy added.
The game was played at such a ferocious pace and the checking so fierce that even the world’s best players found themselves turning over pucks and making mistakes they might rarely make under regular NHL circumstances.
After going literally years at Olympic competition without trailing in best-on-best competition – going back to the group stage in Vancouver in 2010 – Canada trailed in all three elimination games, including the gold medal game.
Against Czechia in the quarterfinals and then against Finland in the semifinals, Canada found a way, to overcome those deficits.
On this afternoon in Milan, they couldn’t quite get over the hump. When Canada found itself on a 5-on-3 for 1:33 in the second period it seemed certain Canada would at least tie the game. But the American penalty killers stood tall. They did so again late in the third period after Jack Hughes was whistled for high sticking.
In all, the American penalty killers were a perfect 17-for-17 throughout the Olympic tournament.
The penalty kill was a badge of honor for guys like Brock Nelson, who brings home a third men’s hockey gold for his family following medals won by his uncle in 1980 and his grandfather in 1960, and Vincent Trocheck, especially given some of the criticism in some quarters of the team’s make-up that saw some top offensive American players left home.
“There was a lot of talk about how the team was built, right? We had a job to do,” Trocheck said. “To do what we did, go 100% [on the penalty kill], that made a big difference.”
On the ice, awaiting the medal ceremony, Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski paraded a Johnny Gaudreau jersey around the ice in honor of the late Columbus Blue Jackets forward who was killed, along with his brother Matthew, in a car accident before the start of last season.
Later, Gaudreau’s children were brought onto the ice for the Team USA picture.
“It just felt right. Johnny's family first, and I think part of him, part of those guys, the puck not going in our net was, somehow he's standing there doing something, laughing with Matty, just somehow they put a spell around our net where that puck didn't go in,” Larkin said.
At the end of the day there were lots of players who could have fit on the mantel of golden goal hero. But maybe Jack Hughes deserved it.
In the third period, he lost teeth when he was high-sticked by Sam Bennett. Then he was called for a penalty for high sticking that could have cost the U.S. the game. He said after he pictured himself being the guy America hates had Canada scored on the power play.
“I was like ‘oh my God here it is.’ Larks [Larkin] and Nelson did an unbelievable job on that penalty kill. Just glad we got out of that pickle I put us in,” Jack Hughes said.
Instead, he found a way to close out what was a breakout tournament for him with the goal of a lifetime and a goal that has the potential to impact the course of hockey history in his nation.
“I think every single person in that game can be proud,” Hughes said. “Obviously a great game and we had the better outcome but just a great game between USA and Canada.”
(Feature photo courtesy of Getty Images)