{"id":13370,"date":"2026-02-22T17:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/there-were-cheers-across-the-u-s-after-men-win-first-olympic-hockey-gold-since-1980\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:02","slug":"there-were-cheers-across-the-u-s-after-men-win-first-olympic-hockey-gold-since-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/there-were-cheers-across-the-u-s-after-men-win-first-olympic-hockey-gold-since-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"There were cheers across the U.S. after men win first Olympic hockey gold since 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"United
United States' Jack Eichel celebrates after the United States defeated Canada in a men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Petr David Josek)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy \u2013 They chanted \u201cU\u2011S\u2011A\u201d and a few openly wept at Lake Placid\u2019s Olympic Center, the same building where the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d happened exactly 46 years earlier. In Ohio, some waved flags inside a packed bar. And in Florida, a man played baseball while wearing a USA Hockey jersey.<\/p>\n

The man was George Springer, who plays for the Toronto Blue Jays. Canadians might not have appreciated his wardrobe.<\/p>\n

USA 2, Canada 1. The U.S. men are Olympic hockey gold medalists for the first time since 1980 after topping their rivals to the north in overtime Sunday in Milan. The country \u2013 even though the game started at 8 a.m. Eastern, 5 a.m. Pacific \u2013 was clearly watching, and when it ended, overjoyed reactions could be found from sea to shining sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtremely proud,\u201d Florida Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich said.<\/p>\n

In Madison, Wisconsin, the goal horns went off at the Badgers\u2019 hockey arena before the powerhouse women\u2019s team hosted St. Cloud State because the gold\u2011medal game was being shown on the arena screen. When Jack Hughes scored the winner, the crowd erupted.<\/p>\n

Among those celebrating: the St. Cloud State women\u2019s team, who were watching even though they had their own game to prepare for. Wisconsin, coached by Mark Johnson, who played for the 1980 \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d team, won its game 4\u20112.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t here for the Miracle game, obviously, since I\u2019m only 44,\u201d said Jackie Palmateer, a vacationer who watched from the arena in Lake Placid on Sunday. \u201cWe were going to go skiing, and then this happened, and you have to watch the game, and I said, \u2018Why would we want to watch this from the hotel?\u2019 So, we came here. It\u2019s like seeing history happen when you\u2019re already in the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House took notice, with President Donald Trump posting on social media, \u201cCongratulations to our great U.S.A. Ice Hockey team. THEY WON THE GOLD. WOW!\u201d Other politicians weighed in as well. Sen. Amy Klobuchar posted a video of a hockey bar, Tom Reid\u2019s Hockey City Pub in St. Paul, Minnesota, packed at 7 a.m. local time. \u201cThey don\u2019t call Minnesota the State of Hockey for nothing,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

And in South Florida, the Elbo Room \u2013 a preferred hangout spot for Matthew Tkachuk \u2013 was full for the early start, then erupted when the Americans prevailed.<\/p>\n

It was must\u2011see TV, even across other sports.<\/p>\n

Some NBA teams might not have been watching customary pregame film Sunday. They were watching hockey instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t waking up at 5:30,\u201d Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cBut incredible, what an incredible sporting event, competition at its highest, amazing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr had dual rooting interests: He coached the U.S. men\u2019s basketball team to gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the Warriors\u2019 vice president of player health and performance is Rick Celebrini \u2013 father of Canada forward Macklin Celebrini, someone the organization follows closely.<\/p>\n

The Miami Marlins gathered in their spring training clubhouse to watch overtime, with chants of \u201cU\u2011S\u2011A\u201d breaking out when Hughes scored. Springer, according to MLB.com, bolted from the Blue Jays\u2019 clubhouse to celebrate outside when the U.S. won, then took live batting practice in his USA Hockey jersey.<\/p>\n

In Mesa, Arizona, the Athletics watched the final together inside the Hohokam Stadium clubhouse \u2013 and Canadian center fielder Denzel Clarke was left heartbroken.<\/p>\n

A\u2019s manager Mark Kotsay said the game was \u201cpretty incredible.\u201d But he felt for Clarke, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it was one against 72 in there,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201cHe would have definitely let us all know about it. So, we kind of got fortunate and very thankful for Team USA to win the gold today. Not much does quiet Denzel, but it definitely quieted him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t quiet in Lake Placid \u2013 or anywhere else in the U.S. that had the game on Sunday. What happened on Feb. 22, 1980, with the \u201cMiracle\u201d team will always resonate, and odds are, so will what happened on Feb. 22, 2026, with this golden group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next generation,\u201d U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck said, \u201chas something to look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, it felt like an entire nation agreed.<\/p>\n

\"United
United States' Brady Tkachuk (7), Matthew Tkachuk, center, and Zach Werenski (8) celebrate after their overtime win against Canada in the men's ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"United
United States' Dylan Larkin (21) celebrates with fans after the men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"United
United States players greet fans after defeating Canada in the men's ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Luca Bruno)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"United
United States fans cheer after a men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Petr David Josek)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

put training on hold to join celebration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1210,29,1211],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ice-hockey","tag-newsletter","tag-winter-olympics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18943,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions\/18943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}