{"id":1163267,"date":"2026-02-22T18:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1163267"},"modified":"2026-02-22T18:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:42:29","slug":"the-first-us-olympic-mens-hockey-gold-since-1980-happens-without-needing-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/the-first-us-olympic-mens-hockey-gold-since-1980-happens-without-needing-a-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"The first us Olympic men's hockey gold since 1980 happens without needing a 'Miracle'"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Dave Christian got emotional throughout the Winter Olympics<\/a> watching nephew Brock Nelson play for the U.S., just like he did during the magical run in 1980. <\/a><\/p>\n

Then it got even better: He got to congratulate Nelson after he became a gold medalist, just like him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFun to share this with him,\u201d Nelson said after the U.S. beat Canada in overtime<\/a> 46 years to the day of Christian and his teammates pulling off the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d<\/a> by defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to gold in Lake Placid in upstate New York.<\/p>\n

Christian and Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 team, were in attendance at Milano Santagiulia Arena to witness just the third U.S. men’s hockey gold medal in history. Eruzione had been around the team before, including a dinner at the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago in Montreal, and has been willing to dole out advice whenever current players ask.<\/p>\n

He just doesn’t want their accomplishment to be overshadowed too much by looking back nearly a half-century to what Eruzione and Co. did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for them,\u201d Eruzione told The Associated Press by phone. \u201cIt\u2019s got nothing to do with me or the 1980 Olympic team.<\/a> I think my teammates and I are just proud at what these guys did and congratulations to them. They\u2019re part of the family. They joined the gold medal club.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s a different time than 1980, and the game is viewed very differently in the U.S. Back then, on Feb. 22, 1980, the U.S. win over the Soviets was aired on tape-delay. This win, on Feb. 22, 2026, was aired live, though the broadcast started at 8 a.m. Eastern on a Sunday.<\/p>\n

Doesn’t matter. America was awake for it. Many bars and restaurants around the country were jammed, including in Lake Placid. America wanted to see 1980 happen again \u2014 and while this was no miracle, the drama delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every single person in that game can be proud,\u201d said Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal like Eruzione did. “Just a great game between USA and Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milan is obviously also a different setting than Lake Placid, but U.S. players stayed in the athletes’ village in Italy \u2014 unlike Canada, which moved to a hotel \u2014 and soaked up the full experience of the NHL being in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really embraced the full Olympic aspect of it,\u201d captain Auston Matthews said. \u201cFrom the village to everything, we just had a blast for two weeks. To come out with a gold medal it\u2019s obviously an incredible feeling but I’ll definitely remember the whole two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That 1980 team was famously made up of players largely from Minnesota and Boston. This team showed how much the game has grown in the U.S.<\/p>\n

This team had plenty of players with Massachusetts and Minnesota ties, sure, but there were players from Missouri, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Alaska, Colorado, Montana and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAuston Matthews is from Arizona,\u201d Eruzione said. \u201cThat wouldn\u2019t have happened in \u201980.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certain the 1980 team sparked growth within the game in the U.S. He\u2019s just as certain that the two golds<\/a> in Milan — \u201cthe ladies, too,\u201d Eruzione said — will get even more kids to say they want to play hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cDating back to 1980, it\u2019s been a long time,\u201d center Jack Eichel said. “I know the 1980 team did and what that meant for generations that came after in USA Hockey. We wrote our own story here. It\u2019s a really proud moment for every guy in that room, every person that\u2019s a part of the team.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Reynolds reported from Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/first-us-olympic-mens-hockey-184229164.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Dave Christian got emotional throughout the Winter Olympics watching nephew Brock Nelson play for the U.S., just like he did during the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}