MILAN — Jack Hughes took the Zach Werenski feed between the penalty boxes, pivoted toward the net and went to work.
He carried the puck into the offensive zone and pulled up at the half wall, surveying his options as two Slovak defenders stared him down. Not finding an open passing lane, despite a few shoulder shimmies, Hughes executed a quick give-and-go with Werenski at the blue line, freeing up some space for him in the high slot. Tomas Tatar made a run at him, and Hughes turned him inside out before sliding to the left circle and unleashing a nasty wrister through defenseman Martin Fehervary and past goaltender Samuel Hlavaj, who could only flinch as the puck sailed by high on the far side.
The American bench erupted. Hughes went down to one knee to celebrate. His teammates ran to join him. Yes, it seems like Team USA — a self-described “work in progress” and “unfinished product” throughout this tournament — might just be peaking at the right time.
Bring on Canada.
Because the matchup hockey fans have been waiting 12 years for is finally here.
The United States easily dispatched Slovakia in a 6-2 semifinal blowout on Friday night at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, setting up a superpower showdown with Canada in Sunday’s Olympic gold medal game. The biggest matchup on the world’s biggest stage, two All-Star behemoths jockeying for global hockey supremacy.
The thought of Connor McDavid matching up against Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon lining up against Jack Eichel, Cale Makar dueling Quinn Hughes has tormented and tantalized fans for years, with the NHL choosing to sit out the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, and pulling out of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because of the pandemic.
Now, it’s happening. For the third time since the NHL began participating in the Olympics in 1998, the U.S. and Canada will meet for the ultimate prize. Canada won 5-2 in 2002 in Salt Lake City and 3-2 in 2010 in Vancouver, the latter in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s “golden goal.” Canada has won 15 of 19 meetings all time at the Olympics, including a 4-1 record with NHL participation (the lone win coming in a preliminary round game in Vancouver).
The last meeting between the two countries, a 3-2 overtime victory in the final of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off last February — set against a politically charged backdrop as President Trump openly mused about annexing Canada and making it “the 51st state” — drew more than 16 million viewers in Canada and the United States.
There’s been speculation that Trump may attend Sunday’s game. FBI Director Kash Patel — a friend of USA men’s hockey GM Bill Guerin and somebody who arranged for Trump to call into the United States’ locker room before last year’s 4 Nations final to offer words of encouragement — was supposed to be at Friday’s U.S. semifinal, CBS reported.
Thanks to the group-stage format of the men’s tournament, which separated the three gold-or-bust countries — Canada, the U.S. and Sweden — the two teams could only face each other in Milan in the elimination round. As the top two seeds, they seemed destined to meet in the gold medal game. Canada got there with a harrowing last-minute comeback victory over Finland in the first semifinal.
The Americans set up the possibility with an equally dramatic quarterfinal win over Sweden, withstanding a last-minute goal by Mika Zibanejad before winning it in overtime on Quinn Hughes’ wicked shot from the slot. They cemented it in Friday’s semifinal with a thorough rout of an overmatched Slovakia squad. The tournament’s pleasant surprise was unable to muster any more magic against the U.S., which got two goals from Jack Hughes and one each from Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Eiche and Brady Tkachuk. Zach Werenski had three assists, and Thompson, Tkachuk and Eichel each had two points.
Connor Hellebuyck continued to rewrite the narrative about his career, that he’s only elite in the regular season and is a big-game liability, made 22 saves, his shutout spoiled by Juraj Slafkovsky’s third-period goal.
The Americans have given up eight goals in five games.
Guerin is one step closer to vindication for his much-disputed roster construction. He chose to leave off three of the top four American goal-scorers in the NHL — Dallas’ Jason Robertson, Montreal’s Cole Caufield and Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat — in favor of grittier veterans J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers. And he left dynamic Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson at home, even passing him over when Florida’s Seth Jones had to pull out of the Olympics with an injury.
Offense was hard to come by against Sweden, with the U.S. scoring just once in regulation, but the Americans had plenty of firepower against lesser powers Latvia, Denmark, Germany and Slovakia.
Slovakia now turns its attention to defending its bronze medal in the Beijing Games. While the Americans cruised into the quarterfinal, Slovakia had a wild run — upsetting Finland in the opener, barely holding off Italy, then losing to Sweden but winning the group with a last-minute Dalibor Dvorský goal that gave Slovakia the group win and a bye into the quarters, where they knocked off Germany. Slovakia — with youth, swagger and joy on their side — believed a gold medal was within reach, but a bronze against an NHL-laden field would be a massive achievement.
“Coming into the tournament, seeing the roster, I don’t think anybody believed us,” Sharks rookie Pavol Regenda said after the win over Germany. “And probably neither did we. … In a tournament like this, underdogs can bite really hard, so we are really happy where we are right now. Top four, unbelievable.”