Jake Guentzel may not have had the biggest impact on the stat sheet, but he has the ultimate bragging rights in the locker room as he was part of Team USA’s historic win in Milan. Guentzel comes back to Tampa with the gold medal as the Americans defeated Team Canada in overtime, 2-1, on Jack Hughes’ goal less than two minutes into the bonus session.
Forty-six years to the day of the Miracle on Ice, the United States pulled off the win. It wasn’t quite a “Do you believe in miracles?” level of an upset, instead it was more of a “Do you believe in a coinflip?” level of an upset considering the elite make-up of the two rosters.
In the end, it came down to goaltending and Connor Hellebuyck, with his 41 stops outdueled Jordan Binnington’s 26-save effort. Hellebuyck stopped Conor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini on breakaways, but his most photogenic (and important) save came on Devon Toews as he managed to reach behind his body and get his stick on the puck.
For the Canadians, who outplayed the US for most of the night, it was a game of missed chances, none more so that Nathan MacKinnon all alone at the side of the net who chipped the puck wide with Hellebuyck out of position.
Perhaps the key turning point of the game came early with the United States nursing an early 1-0 lead thanks to Matt Boldy. Guentzel was already in the penalty box when Charlie McAvoy must have thought he was lonely, because he joined him and gave Team Canada a lengthy 5-on-3 power play. Hellebuyck and the defense held them off, preserving the 1-0 margin. Eventually, Cale Makar tied the game with under two minutes to go in the second period, but if Canada had scored on that two-goal advantage, things would have played out differently.
Instead, it was Hughes celebrating with a broken-tooth smile (courtesy of a Sam Bennet high-stick) and his teammates in overtime as the the U.S. finally took down Canada in a gold medal game (they had been 0-2 in the Olympics).
What a way to close out a fun tournament.
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