{"id":229925,"date":"2026-02-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/team-usa-defeats-canada-to-win-first-mens-hockey-olympic-gold-since-1980-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:00:00","slug":"team-usa-defeats-canada-to-win-first-mens-hockey-olympic-gold-since-1980-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/team-usa-defeats-canada-to-win-first-mens-hockey-olympic-gold-since-1980-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA defeats Canada to win first men\u2019s hockey Olympic gold since 1980 | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tdmyoMe4iHM\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">It wasn\u2019t a <em>Miracle<\/em><\/a>, but 46 years later, the result was the same: Team USA is back atop the men\u2019s hockey world, beating Canada 2\u20131 in 3-on-3 overtime yesterday to win Olympic gold for the first time since 1980. Here\u2019s how the red, white, and blue claimed the final hardware of the Milano Cortina Games.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc4f Connor Hellebuyck and Jack Hughes\u2019 heroics power American victory:<\/strong> A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7064324\/2026\/02\/22\/jack-hughes-teeth-usa-olympics-hockey-gold-medal\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">toothless Hughes<\/a> scored the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qxI7uJp3TQM\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Golden Goal<\/a>, while goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stayed steady as the team\u2019s backbone, putting on a 41-save clinic as the Canadians outshot the Americans 42-28. Brick wall, waterfall, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EuOIxbWFI4M\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Helly does it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc94 The bigger picture:<\/strong> The American-heavy crowd at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena erupted after the win, but the mood turned briefly somber when Team USA honored their teammate Columbus Blue Jacket Johnny Gaudreau, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/olympics\/2026\/02\/22\/johnny-gaudreau-death-team-usa-hockey-inspiration\/88814092007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">tragically killed<\/a> alongside his brother, Matthew, in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/team-usa-defeats-canada-to-win-first-mens-hockey-olympic-gold-since-1980\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: It wasn\u2019t a Miracle, but 46 years later, the result was the same: Team USA is back atop the men\u2019s hockey world, beating Canada 2\u20131 in 3-on-3 overtime yesterday to win Olympic gold for the first time since 1980. Here\u2019s how the red, white, and blue claimed the final hardware of the Milano [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-229925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}