NHL
2026 Olympic
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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. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
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 Fehérváry and past goaltender Samuel Hlavaj, who could only flinch as the puck sailed by high on the far side.
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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 “unfinished product” throughout this tournament, might just be a finished one.
“I think our game is peaking at the right time,” Hughes said.
Bring on Canada.
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 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.
“It’s best on best, it’s what every American and Canadian grows up watching, grows up caring about,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “This is the pinnacle of the sport. This is as good as it gets. And a rivalry that’s as good as it gets. There will be not one TV without this game on in the United States and Canada, and that should get you fired up.”
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 COVID-19 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 U.S. win coming in a preliminary round game in Vancouver).
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The last meeting between the countries, a 3-2 overtime Canada 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 general manager Bill Guerin’s and somebody who arranged for Trump to call into the United States’ dressing 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. U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said after the game he didn’t know if Trump was coming, and that the Americans had plenty of motivation regardless.
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 face each other in Milan only 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, Eichel and Brady Tkachuk. 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 elite only in the regular season and is a big-game liability. He made 22 saves, his shutout spoiled by Juraj Slafkovský’s third-period goal. The Americans have given up just eight goals in five games.
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Now, they’re getting a Canada team that needed late-game heroics to beat both the Czech Republic (also known as Czechia) and Finland. Both teams are battle-tested in the elimination stage of the tournament, but only the Americans can say for sure they’re playing at their best.
“We’re excited for it,” said Werenski. “It’s the matchup everyone wanted, and we didn’t want to look ahead too far. Obviously, we knew we had to get through Sweden, get through Slovakia, and now that it’s finally here, we can kind of shift our focus to Canada. We know how good of a team they are, and it’s going to be a challenge for us, but I like our team right now. I like our game. I feel like we’ve gotten better as the tournament’s went on, and I’m expecting a pretty tight game on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, 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, passing him over even 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.
They’ll need all of it to hang with Canada in what will be the biggest game of many of these players’ careers.
“Just can’t really script it any better than that,” Brady Tkachuk said. “Know for us all we cared about was putting ourselves in that position. Didn’t really matter who we were going to play. … Truly grateful to be in this position to achieve a childhood dream. Hasn’t really sunk in yet that we’re playing. I know it’s going to sink in later and tomorrow that we’re playing for a gold medal.”
Thompson left the game after the second period with a lower-body injury for what Sullivan said was precautionary reasons. The big winger had a goal and an assist, giving him three goals and an assist in five games. He’s a big part of the first power-play unit, and Larkin took over that spot in the third period.
“We’ll see how he recovers,” Sullivan said, “but we anticipate him being ready (for Sunday).”
Should Thompson be unable to go, Winnipeg Jets winger Kyle Connor is the extra forward.
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Canada is even more banged up, with the status of captain Sidney Crosby and defenseman Josh Morrissey still up in the air.
Quinn Hughes, whose absence at 4 Nations was sorely felt, moved within one point of tying Sweden’s Erik Karlsson (2014) and American Brian Rafalski (2010) for the all-time record for points by a defenseman in an Olympics with NHL participation. His secondary assist on Thompson’s power-play goal late in the first period gave him six assists to go with his overtime goal to beat Sweden. He has points in all five games of the tournament, with his five-game point streak tying Zach Parise (2010) for the longest by a U.S. skater in NHL-featured Olympics.
And then there’s Jack.
What a tournament he’s having after being disappointing in the 4 Nations. After starting at fourth-line left wing, Hughes was promoted to third-line left wing alongside Larkin and Thompson on Friday night and added two goals to give him three goals and six points in five games.
“We thought he was playing real well, and so we thought by moving him up and getting him more ice time, he could impact the game more,” Sullivan said. “It was just a decision on our part based on how Jack has played, and we think he’s getting better with every game he’s played.”
Jack’s first goal, with the shoulder shimmy at the top of the slot, was eerily reminiscent of his brother’s patented move.
“He’s probably better at all that stuff than I am,” Quinn said. “He’s pretty silky.”
Responded Jack: “I don’t know about that. You guys have been seeing him do that for like 25 minutes a night here. So he’s the best in the world, probably, at shimmying like that up top.”
Slovakia now turns its attention to defending its bronze medal from 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 a bye into the quarterfinals, where they knocked off Germany. Slovakia — with youth, swagger and joy on its side — believed a gold medal was within reach, but a bronze against an NHL-laden field would be a massive achievement.
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“Yeah, for sure. It’s a big tournament with all the NHL players. We would for sure be excited,” said Slafkovský, who now has 11 goals in 12 career Olympic games. “It obviously sucks (when) you lose in the semifinals, always. But we’re going to get a good sleep, we’re going to wake up with a smile on our faces tomorrow, and we’re going to go do it.”
Matthew Tkachuk and Erik Černak got into a tussle at the end of the game.
“Obviously, big emotions in this game by both sides,” Slovak defenseman Fehérváry said. “Everyone knows what the Tkachuks are doing, right? It’s not something that would surprise someone. It’s just the emotions got high, you know?”
The Americans gave Slovakia a few opportunities to get back in it by taking four penalties in the first half of the game, but the Slovak power play was ineffective. For the first few chances, Slovakia didn’t even appear to have a net-front presence in front of Hellebuyck. The fourth opportunity was a little better, but the Americans still held Slovakia without a shot on goal.
Of course, the Canadian power play is a tad more dangerous than Slovakia’s. With a first unit of McDavid, MacKinnon, Makar, Macklin Celebrini and Sam Reinhart, the U.S. can ill afford to be so undisciplined Sunday.
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