Golden Goals
There is a lot of strife going on in this country right now. Most people have different opinions on a variety of topics, but the one thing that always seems to bring people together whatever you believe politically, religiously, etc. is sports. In particular, the Olympics, where we are all rooting for one team and want to see our athletes do the best they can and take home the gold medal. Our athletes can be outspoken but when they win, things can be forgotten and they are cheered for.
Forty-six years ago, in a small town in upstate New York, the world descended on Lake Placid for the Winter Olympics. The speed skating track was outside in front of the high school. This is not your prototypical city to have the Olympics, especially in today’s day and age when a city which hosts the games spends billions of dollars to build new stadiums and arenas. Well in 1980, as most of us know and if you don’t you must have been living under a rock the last few weeks, our group of college kids beat the mighty Russians in the semifinals, called the “Miracle on Ice” and then went on to win the gold against Finland. It was only the second time the United States men have won a hockey gold medal. Our boys have not won since; Until today.
First though, we must speak about the United States women hockey team. This was a broad group of women from professionals to college players. Led by captain Hillary Knight in her fifth Olympics, this may have be the most impressive team the United States has ever brought to the Olympics with the mix of veterans and youth. The women steamrolled through the preliminary round scoring 20 goals in their four games and only giving up one. One of these games was a 5-0 whipping of Canada who was without their captain, Marie-Phillip Poulin. Was this an omen of things to come?
They moved on to the playoff round winning their first two games beating Italy, 5-0 and Sweden, 6-0. With no surprise to anyone, Canada won their games and made it to the gold medal game as well. The rematch of the first meeting and of the eight Olympics where women’s hockey was a sport, this would be the seventh time they played in the gold medal game. The US was upset by Sweden in 2006 in Torino. The Canadian women have been in every gold medal game thus far. In the six matchups leading up to this year, the US women won two; the very first in 1998 and in a shootout in 2018 in China.
If you were expecting this matchup to go the way of the first, you would be sorely mistaken. First, Canada had their captain back and second, this was a tight matchup throughout where both teams were clamping down and each team had their chances. The game was scoreless after one period and fifty-four seconds into the second, Canada took a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded goal by Kristin O’Neill. This lead would stay through the second period into the third. The US women kept fighting and as the clock ticked away and it seemed like Canada would get the best of our women once again, the US pulled their goalie and Laila Edwards would throw the puck at the net from the point and none other than Hillary Knight would deflect it home to tie the game with 2:04 remaining. This goal gave Knight the US women’s team record for goal in the Olympics with 15. Knight also holds the record for most points by a woman with 33.
The game would go to overtime where the teams play 3v3 sudden death. It took just over four minutes into the extra session when Megan Keller made one of the sweetest moves you will see on the Canadian defender which fortunately for the Americans was a forward and just got the puck past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to give the US women their third gold medal. The US was backstopped by Aneirin Frankel who stood on her head stopping 30 of the 31 shots she faced. This was the first golden goal for USA Hockey.
Now the US men would have their tournament. The men would go 3-0 in the preliminary round winning their three games 16-5. The US would draw Sweden in the quarterfinal which most would have thought would take place in the semifinal at the earliest but the Swedes got tripped up early. This game would be a fight and would have to go to overtime where Quinn Hughes would win it in overtime and the men eeked out a 2-1 victory. The men would go on to the semifinal where they faced Slovakia and handily took care of the Slovaks 6-2.
Fast forward two days where the US men would also take on their arch nemesis in Canada. The Canadians would also cruise through the preliminary round and like the Americans ran into a battle in the quarterfinals, where they would need to win 4-3 over Czechia. They pulled out the victory but the Czechs played the body hard in this game and knocked the Canadian captain, Sidney Crosby out of the game with a lower body injury. He would miss the semifinal game against Finland, which the Canadians pulled out late 3-2 after being down 2-0 early on.
The US and Canada have met in the gold medal game two times before this year and Canada has won both matchups. The first was in 2002, in Salt Lake City and the second was in 2010, in Vancouver. The latter was a goal scored by the Canadians in overtime and the goal scorer was none other than Sidney Crosby who would end up not playing in this game due to the injury sustained in the quarterfinals. The first period was a pretty even back and forth matchup with only one penalty. The US would score at the six-minute mark to make it 1-0 and that is how the first period ended.
The second period had a lot more action and US goalie Connor Hellebuyck had to stand on his head. The US was forced to kill a 5 on 3 which they did masterfully. The Canadians continued to put pressure on the United States and force the issue where it felt the ice was completely tilted toward the US goal. Hellebuyck, not known as a big game goaltender continued to stand on his head and made one of the most miraculous saves you will ever see on Devon Toews as Toews had an open net and Hellebuyck reached back with his stick and made a paddle save sending the puck through the crease and out. Cale Makar would finally break through for Canada with 1:44 left in the second period. The US was happy to get out of the second period with just one goal scored and regroup in the intermission.
The third period was a lot of the same where Canada continued to pressure the US. The US received a four-minute power play thirteen minutes into the third but could not convert and just gave the Canadians some more momentum and could not break through. Nathan MacKinnon had a wide-open net late in the game and somehow missed to aide the US a little more.
This game would go into overtime and once again would be 3v3. The teams went back and forth with a small chance or two until Zach Werenski would gain hold of the puck and find Jack Hughes streaking toward the net where he would shoot the puck through Jordan Binnington’s legs to give the US the golden goal and their third gold medal in Olympic hockey history. To make things even sweeter, in attendance was the family of Johnny Gaudreau (aka Johnny Hockey), who died in a biking accident along with his brother in 2024 after being struck by a drunk driver. The US has been hanging Gaudreau’s jersey in the locker room for big tournaments ever since his death and Werenski and Dylan Larkin went off the ice when the team was taking their team picture to grab his two children and bring them onto the ice for the picture.
This was the cherry on top of what was an amazing victory for the United States of America and as mentioned earlier, first gold medal since 1980.