The U.S. men's hockey team has already won a medal at these Olympics—now they're one win away from gold. They face Slovakia on Friday night in Milan, with the winner heading to Sunday's final and the loser settling for bronze on Saturday.
It's been 44 years since the Americans won Olympic gold in men's hockey. That was the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, the one everyone still talks about. Since then, the closest they've come is silver in 2010, when they lost to Canada in the final. For this team, Slovakia is the last obstacle between them and that first gold medal since.
What makes this tournament different is that NHL players are allowed to compete for the first time since 2014, and you can feel it in the quality of play. The quarterfinals were genuinely tense—three of the four matches went to overtime. The U.S. roster is basically a collection of the league's best: Auston Matthews from Toronto, Connor Hellebuyck (the reigning Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL's top goaltender) from Winnipeg, and the Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, both wingers with serious credentials. On Wednesday, Quinn Hughes—named the NHL's best defenseman in 2024—scored the overtime winner against Sweden to get the Americans here.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxSlovakia comes in as a significant underdog. They have only seven NHL players on their roster, though Juraj Slafkovsky, their fifth-leading scorer in the tournament, has been playing well enough to matter.
The Other Side of the Bracket
Canada punched their ticket to the final earlier Friday, beating Finland 3-2 in a comeback. They trailed early, then scored twice in the third period—first Shea Theodore equalized, then Nathan MacKinnon won it on a power play with the clock running down. It sets up a potential rematch of a rivalry that's defined Olympic hockey for years.
Canada's path here wasn't clean, though. In their quarterfinal against Czechia, the Czechs built a 3-2 lead with under eight minutes left on a play officials later admitted should have drawn a penalty for too many men on the ice. That game also injured Canadian captain Sidney Crosby, a two-time gold medalist, and he sat out Friday's match against Finland.
So the final—if the U.S. beats Slovakia—will pit two teams with very different momentum. One is playing with the confidence of dominant roster talent. The other is playing through injury and controversy but has won Olympic gold more recently and more often. Sunday will tell which matters more.
