MILAN – There were nerves and then, immense relief, the kind that comes with knowing the despair of the alternative.
The USA men’s hockey team remains on a path to the gold medal game, as does top rival Canada, at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The next step comes Friday, Feb. 20 in a semifinal matchup against Slovakia, the same day Canada plays Finland.
Both teams needed to win in overtime on Feb. 18 at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, and in between their victories – USA, 2-1 over Sweden; Canada, 4-3 over Czechia – Finland needed overtime to defeat Switzerland, 3-2.
Overtime ruffles even the best of teams.
‘That’s as nervous as I’ve been ever in a hockey game,’ said Dylan Larkin, who scored in regulation. ‘Just the way 3-on-3 goes, it’s really just being opportunistic. Someone could fall, some puck could bounce, anything could happen, especially with the ice out there.’
Then Quinn Hughes stepped on the ice, Matt Boldy got him the puck, and Hughes created space for himself, put the puck on his forehand and took a shot.
‘That was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,’ Brady Tkachuk said. ‘Just the relief of scoring that goal, but seeing it was him, I think it just shows why he’s one of the best defensemen in the show.’
The USA’s roster is entirely NHL elite talent, but Sweden’s roster was stellar, too. The USA wasn’t able to take advantage of Sweden having had to play a qualification game the day before. The Americans couldn’t close them out, and so with 91 seconds left, Lucas Raymond made an incredible pass to set up Mika Zibanejad, and the Americans had to collect themselves.
‘I think it just showed exactly what we’ve been talking about this whole time,’ Tkachuk said. ‘It’s just the adversity, the character, just the will to win with our group. Probably something that can deflate you and end your tournament if you don’t just put your mind back in a good spot, and I think it just shows the character of being able to bounce back and get that win.’
Hughes shrugged it off.
‘Got to pick yourself back up,’ he said. ‘I’ve been saying all along, we’ve got guys that have won Cups and gone deep in the playoffs and superstars in the league, so I feel like it’s resilient group. You just pick yourself back up, get ready to go and I feel like we had an attack mindset in overtime.’
It’s one thing to settle NHL games via 3-on-3 overtime in the regular season. But when everything is on the line, it’s a pressure cooker. And unlike NHL teams, where the same three guys tend to rotate together in OT, as much as USA players know one another, it’s different in such a format.
‘We did address overtime at the beginning of at the start of this tournament because we felt at some point it was going to play a role,’ coach Mike Sullivan said. ‘We had a video session on it. It’s hard with the limited practice time that we have and the condensed schedule, the amount of games in a short period of time. It’s hard to maybe have an opportunity to actually give them reps and practice. But we dedicated a meeting on overtime 3-on-3 on both sides of the puck so that we could have some predictability around it.’
The players aced the test, and now get to study up on Slovakia.