Now, the men have achieved a remarkable double victory.
Following a challenging beginning, Matt Boldy’s individual skill enabled the USA to make a spectacular comeback.
Boldy picked up the puck inside his own half, dribbled it over two defenders, and outran them to collect it before pushing it around stranded Jordan Binnington.
Similar to the previous two knockout rounds, Canada had to overcome a deficit but found it difficult to gain momentum by the conclusion of the second period.
The United States defended courageously, even when they were outnumbered three to five with two players in the penalty box.
But in the 38th minute, a quick switch from Devon Toews found Cale Makar open on the right side and he fired the puck past Hellebuyck.
Canada continued to dominate in the third period and had 41 shots to the USA’s 26 in regular time.
But it seemed they were determined to miss every scoring chance. Hellebuyck produced brilliant goalkeeping to keep out Mitch Marner from close range before Nathan MacKinnon somehow headed past an open goal at the back post.
The result meant three-on-three overtime for the first time in Olympic history. In the gold medal match, both teams field three players and one goalkeeper in overtime and play until a goal is scored without a shootout.
And after both sides had chances, Hughes buried his shot 101 seconds into added time to write his name in American sporting folklore.
