Feb. 22, 2026 — Milan, Italy The United States men’s ice hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime to claim the gold medal at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, ending a 46-year drought since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.” Jack Hughes scored the game-winner at 1:41 of overtime, assisted by Zach Werenski, in the final at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, as reported by USA Hockey and the NHL.
Matt Boldy opened the scoring at 6:00 of the first period with a backhand goal past Jordan Binnington, assisted by Auston Matthews and Quinn Hughes, marking the fastest goal to start an Olympic gold medal game with NHL players, according to NHL.com. Cale Makar tied it at 18:16 of the second for Canada with a snap shot. Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves for the U.S., including key stops on Connor McDavid and a desperation stick save on Devon Toews, earning tournament Best Goaltender honors per the Olympics.com recap.
“I can’t even believe this. I mean, it’s such an unbelievable game, USA-Canada. That’s such an unbelievable win for the Americans.”
— Jack Hughes, NHL.com
Hellebuyck’s performance drew widespread praise, with Matthew Tkachuk calling it “one of the best performances of all-time, right up there with Jim Craig” from 1980, as detailed in The Athletic.
Jack Hughes and Team USA celebrate the overtime victory (Image from WSJ X post).
Post-game, U.S. players honored the late Johnny Gaudreau by skating his No. 13 jersey around the ice with the American flag, noted in The Athletic and Olympics.com. U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said, “This game, in a lot of ways, was an inspiration to our country,” via USA Hockey. Canada’s Jon Cooper added, “In the big picture, the real winner of this tournament was ice hockey.”
The victory marked the U.S.’s third Olympic men’s hockey gold, with Canada absent Sidney Crosby due to injury. The U.S. went 17-for-17 on penalty kills in the tournament and outshot Canada 42-28 overall.
News exploded on X, with @WSJ posting, “Breaking: Jack Hughes scored the most dramatic goal… turned the Americans into Olympic champions” (1,305 likes), and @nytimes sharing the result (1,170 likes).
Connor Hellebuyck in action during the gold medal game (Image from NYT X post).
