Jack Hughes becomes U.S. hockey hero by scoring 'Golden Goal' against Canada

MILAN -- The cracked tooth smile with blood on his teeth and lips. The American flag draped over his shoulders and his right fist up in the air. The flowing hair soaked with sweat. The gold medal around his neck.

Jack Hughes, now forever an American hockey hero.

“He’s a high stakes player,” Team USA coach Mike Sullivan said. “He brought his very best when the stakes were the highest.”

Hughes scored the 'Golden Goal' 46 years in the making 1:41 into overtime, giving Team USA a 2-1 overtime win against Team Canada in the gold medal game of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 at Santagiulia Arena on Sunday.

It is the United States’ first gold medal in men’s hockey since the Miracle on Ice in 1980.

“I’m not surprised because when I looked around the room before overtime, there’s probably three or four guys that I look at and I’m like, ‘That guy is not nervous, he wants to be that guy,’” defenseman Quinn Hughes, Jack’s older brother, said. “I felt that way about Jack. … Just a special guy.”

Hughes was at the center of everything late in the third period and in overtime.

First, he took a high stick from Canadian forward Sam Bennett directly to the chops, cracking his front teeth and a double minor penalty. The U.S. got a four-minute power play out of it at 13:26 of the third period.

“My first thought was, I looked on the ice and saw my teeth, and I was like, ‘Here we go again,’ because I know the last time that happened it wasn’t very fun,” Hughes said.

Then he thought of the time remaining in the game and the opportunity on the power play.

“I just thought, we’ve got an elite first power play [unit],” Hughes said. “Four minutes, I thought they were going on the ice and they were going to score, and that was going to be the gold medal game.”

Well, that didn’t happen.

Not only did the Americans fail to score on the power play, Hughes came on the ice and took a high-sticking penalty to negate the last 49 seconds of the man advantage.

He got his stick up in the face of Canadian forward Bo Horvat at 16:37, setting up a 4-on-4 before Canada would go on a power play for 1:11.

Hughes had thoughts as he sat in the penalty box.

“I pictured myself on Barstool [Sports] being, like, the guy that America hates because Canada scores on the power play,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, here it is.’”

His teammates saved him by killing off the penalty.

The U.S. was 18-for-18 on the penalty kill in the tournament, including 3-for-3 against Canada. It killed a 5-on-3 for 1:32 in the second period after forward Jake Guentzel and defenseman Charlie McAvoy each drew minor penalties.

“Just glad we got out of that pickle I put us in,” Hughes said.

Said center Vincent Trocheck, “He was able to keep a level head, come back and be the hero.”

But 10 seconds before he scored the goal that changed his life, Hughes had to play some big-time defense.

He had Canadian forward Connor McDavid coming down on him, puck on his stick and with speed that only McDavid can generate.

“When the best player in the world, maybe ever, comes down on you in overtime in the gold medal game and you’re a forward, my first thought was ‘I gotta gap up,’” Hughes said. “Then I was like, ‘I can’t gap up, he’ll just blow right by me.’ So, I just sunk in and hopefully he can’t get around me because there’s not enough space in between me and the net. And that’s honestly kind of what happened.”

McDavid never got a good shot. The puck went behind the net. Hughes kicked it out to defenseman Zach Werenski in the corner. Werenski got it up to Hughes in the middle of the ice. He chipped it up past Canadian defenseman Cale Makar, and Werenski chased it down in Canada’s zone.

Werenski won a quick puck battle with forward Nathan MacKinnon, gained possession low in the right face-off circle and saw Hughes wide open across the ice in the left circle.

“‘Z’ found me,” Hughes said.

Hughes buried his shot under Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington’s left pad.

“I’ve always known how good Jack is,” Werenski said, “but I think he reminded the world how good he is tonight.”

Hughes did that throughout the tournament, overcoming personal adversity to be at the center of the biggest moment.

He’s gotten used to it.

Hughes has gone through so much in his career at just 24 years old, including multiple shoulder surgeries, a fluke hand injury this season that kept him out for 18 games, and even a lower-body injury that prevented him from playing in the last three games before the Olympics.

He arrived here healthy enough to play at the start of the tournament, but he was still relegated to the fourth line as a right winger in Team USA's first game against Team Latvia during the preliminary round on Feb. 12.

Hughes is a No. 1 center for the New Jersey Devils. He has never been on the fourth line.

“Obviously, the last couple of years a lot of things have happened to me, but I was talking about it earlier, it’s not even so much the injuries, it’s like your whole [career] you’re going up against things, there’s always new adversity, new challenges,” Hughes said. “Every single player in that game tonight, Canada and U.S., when they were six, seven, eight years old, every single player went through so many things. You’re just grinding, and you’re grinding, and you’re working your way up. … It’s a journey. It’s the whole lifetime of work and I’m just a part of that.”

He quickly climbed the U.S. depth chart with his play, finishing the tournament with seven points on four goals and three assists in six games.

“I think Jack had a terrific tournament from the first game on,” Sullivan said. “The goals he scored were big-time goals. It’s an emotional roller coaster when you go through these experiences, and I just think Jack was at the center of a lot of the good things that happened for our team.”

He was the centerpiece of the greatest thing to happen for Team USA since 1980: a cracked tooth, and a bloody, sweaty American hockey hero.

“I’m happy it happened to him,” Quinn Hughes said. “My best friend, but also a special player.”