MILAN — The U.S. and Canada faced off in the men’s and women’s hockey finals in the same Olympics twice before the Milan-Cortina Games. Both times Canada took home all the gold.
Now the Americans have a chance at a sweep of their own after the men’s team routed Slovakia 6-2 on Friday to advance to the gold-medal game Sunday, when they will face — you guessed it —- Canada. The U.S. women have already done their part, beating Canada in overtime in their final Thursday.
The men rode two second-period goals from Jack Hughes and three assists from Zach Werenski to their one-sided victory. Canada rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Finland 3-2 in other semifinal.
The Americans also got first-period scores from Dylan Larkin and Tage Thompson, a second-period goal from Jack Eichel and a third-period score from Brady Tkachuk.
Larkin put the U.S. in front to stay less than five minutes after the opening faceoff, dashing off the bench during a line change and collecting a pass from Werenski at the blue line. He then skated along the edge of the left circle before sending a knuckleball by Slovakian goalie Samuel Hlavaj.
The goal was the second in as many games for the Detroit Red Wings’ forward.
Thompson, who had the second assist on that goal, doubled the U.S. lead 41 seconds before the first intermission. The power-play goal came just 19 seconds after Milos Kelemen went off for tripping, with the Buffalo Sabres’ forward one-timing a shot from a tight angle at the bottom of the left circle off Hlavaj’s left shoulder and just inside the near post.
The goal was the third of the tournament for Thompson, matching Auston Matthews for the team high while Quinn Hughes picked up his sixth assist on the play.
Jake Guentzel thought he had a goal of his own midway through the second period when a centering pass caromed off his skate and past Hlavaj but the officials ruled correctly that Guentzel had kicked at the puck. Not that it mattered much because Jack Hughes got that one back seconds later, stickhandling through traffic to the edge of the left faceoff circle before banging a wrist shot off the bottom side of the crossbar.
Eichel made it 4-0 just 19 seconds later, taking advantage of a big error by the Slovakian defense. When the puck went behind the Slovak goal, defenseman Martin Gernant followed two teammates to try to dig it out but Tkachuk got to it first and delivered the puck to Eichel, who had been left all alone in the front of the goal for the finish.
Jack Hughes’ second goal came 96 seconds before the second intermission after Werenski sent the puck around the boards behind the net to the New Jersey Devils’ forward, who finished with a soft one-timer from inside the right faceoff circle.
Slovakia offered a murmur of protest 4:55 into the final period when U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck got caught behind the net and was late scrambling back in front of the goal, leaving him unable to catch up with Juraj Slafkovsky’s shot. The goal was fourth of the tournament for Slafkovsky, who plays for the Montreal Canadians. That’s tied for second in the tournament, one behind Canada’s Macklin Celebrini.
Tkachuk closed out the U.S. scoring on a breakaway with 9:08 left in the game, 2 ½ minutes before the San José Sharks’ Pavol Regenda got Slovakia’s second goal. It was the first time in four games that Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, has given up multiple goals.
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