The United States defeated Canada 2-1 on Sunday in an overtime epic that will live in lore for the ages, while on Saturday Finland avenged its earlier loss to Slovakia 6-1 to take the bronze. With it, three Hurricanes will return this week with medals: One gold, one silver, and one bronze.
That’s the basics that you need to know but that paragraph just doesn’t do justice to the absolute amazing display of hockey that people were treated to on Sunday morning. Last year’s 4 Nations Final just felt like
a warmup to an event that saw Canada just absolutely dominate play, the United States on their heels, and only other-worldly goaltending by Connor Hellebuyck and amazing defense by the US blue line kept the US in the game until Jack Hughes entered his name in American lore by scoring in overtime.
Let’s talk about the two games shall we?
Bronze Medal: Finland defeats Slovakia 6-1
As everyone had been eyeing that the United States and Canada were headed for a showdown in the Gold Medal game, the bronze medal felt like it would be a true achievement for whichever squad could grab it. The biggest question was whether or not Finland could recover from the heartbreak of their loss to Canada on Friday to seek revenge on Slovakia and head home with a prize for their Olympics.
The task seemingly got taller once it was revealed that Mikko Rantanen was not going to play due to some lower body concerns. No worries, though, because Sebastian Aho would take control. Just 7:27 into the first, Aho would join his team at crashing the net, stuffing the puck past Slovakian goalie Samuel Hlavaj and giving Finland the 1-0 lead, a lead they’d never give up.
It would take until the second period for Finland to get a 2-0 lead that would really put Slovakia on its heels, as Erik Haula finished off a strong tournament by nailing one eight minutes into the second. The Finns seemed to be in total control until Slovakia was able to get one by Jusse Saros with just 30 seconds left in the period thanks to Tomas Tatar. Finland wouldn’t let Saturday be a repeat of Friday, though, as they reestablished control in the third and stuck a dagger in Slovakia thanks to two goals in 42 seconds. The first was scored by Roope Hintz, the second by Kaapo Kakko. With a 4-1 lead, Finland controlled the rest of the game, tacking on two when Slovakia pulled the goalie twice because they had nothing else to lose.
Aho would finish the tournament with four goals, two assists, and a +4 rating. As the horn sounded he was able to celebrate with his teammates and accept a bronze for Finland, their fourth medal since NHLers started participating in the games.
Gold Medal: United States Defeats Canada 2-1 in Overtime
Better writers than I will put into words the game that was played on Sunday morning. In the end the Hurricanes’ Jaccob Slavin did Jaccob Slavin things and helped earned the United States its first gold medal in hockey since 1980, while a disappointed Seth Jarvis and Team Canada head back with the silver.
The game, in a lot of ways, was similar to the Canada/Finland matchup in that Canada once again let their opponent get on the board first and that opponent went into a shell. The scoresheet is going to say that Auston Matthews and Quinn Hughes assisted on the first goal, but Matt Boldy just made an incredible play. He started back in the defensive zone, skated straight ahead and used a little flip of the puck to push it ahead and get between Devon Toews and Cale Makar, which allowed him to regain possession and shoot it past Jordan Binnington.
For most of the game, though, Canada would control action. While Canada would get called for a hook late in the first period, the US Power Play produced nothing—a theme for rest of the game—and from that point forward Canada just absolutely tilted the ice in one direction. The Canadians were playing without the 2010 Gold Medal Hero Sidney Crosby, but the talent out on the ice was nothing short of spectacular, and it took a monumental effort by the US blue liners and an unbelievable performance by goalie Connor Hellebuyck to keep the US in the game.
A particular stretch that would later prove costly for Canada was a 1:32 stretch in the second where they were looking at a 5-on-3. Somehow, they didn’t score, and while Cale Makar would make up for his defensive lapse toward the end of the third by knotting the score at one, the fact that Canada came out of the 5-on-3 without a goal felt massive at the time.
The Canadians continued to dictate play in the third, even to the point where Nathan MacKinnon had a wide open net that he just missed during the period. The tide changed somewhat as Sam Bennett was called for a double-minor for high sticking Jack Hughes—costing Hughes one of his teeth. But, the US couldn’t finish out the power play before Hughes committed a high sticking penalty of his own to negate it and give Canada some power play time late. Neither scored, and the match moved to a 3-on-3 overtime.
Jaccob Slavin was cited by many as a big reason the US was still within reach of winning the game, but once it shifted to 3-on-3 he would watch from the bench. The action turned to plaid as the puck dropped for the overtime. About 1:40 in, Cale Makar tried to slap the puck away from Jack Hughes. He would miss, and it lead to a US rush from Zach Werenski. Hughes kept going on the play with the numbers and went to Binnington’s right, wide open, and Werenski fed him a perfect pass that Hughes slapped past Binnington for the winner.
In all of the celebration for the United States, the most heartfelt was seeing the US bring out Johnny Gaudreau’s jersey on the ice, and then it plus his children on the ice for the gold medal photo.
Seth Jarvis played the second-least amount of minutes for Canada with only Sam Reinhart playing less. There will likely be a lot talk in the days, weeks, and months to come about the decision to bring him however it’s tough to nitpick that decision when Canada had two massive power play misses, and their best defenseman was on the ice for both of the US goals. Despite the massive disappointment he will come back to Raleigh with a silver medal.
It was noted on the NBC Broadcast that all of the players are flying back to the US on Monday—and now coming in via Miami thanks to the Nor’easter that’s going to hit the New York area. A lot will only have a day to put this behind them for the rest of the season as sixteen teams start the post-Olympic action on Wednesday. Slavin and Jarvis, however, get to soak it in for one more day and get a real practice in with their teammates as the Hurricanes return to action Thursday Night in Raleigh against Tampa Bay.
