Olympic Success: Wild players and staff return to Minnesota after USA wins Olympic gold

Play “Free Bird.” On repeat. 

The U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team ended a 46-year drought when it won the gold medal in Milan this month with a 2-1 overtime victory over rival Canada. Jack Hughes scored the golden goal just 1 minute, 41 seconds into overtime. 

Players in their blue USA jerseys piled onto the ice for the golden celebration, including Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes, Jack’s older brother, who was the leading scorer in the Olympics for the United States.

“It was very special to get this done with this group,” Quinn Hughes said, in an NHL interview. “It’s only the third time it’s ever happened, and it’s special.” 

This 2026 Olympic men’s hockey team joins the 1960 and 1980 – the famous “Miracle on Ice” team – as the only men’s hockey teams from the United States to win gold.

It’d been 12 years since NHL players competed in the Olympics, and 10 Wild and Iowa Wild players represented their home countries in Milan this winter, including three for the United States. Players included: Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes (United States); Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Gustavsson, Marcus Johansson and Jesper Wallstedt (Sweden); Nico Sturm (Germany); David Spacek (Czechia); and Samuel Hlavaj (Slovakia). 

Quinn ended the Olympics with a gold medal around his neck as Team USA’s leading scorer with eight points. He recorded at least one assist in each of the six games, to go along with his overtime winner in the quarterfinals. Quinn also led the United States in ice time with 141:08, a stat not too surprising considering he waved off skating to the bench for a line change in overtime of the quarterfinal against Sweden, just before he popped his winning goal. 

“I wanted to take it to my forehand, and I got the defender moving that way,” Quinn said, in an NHL interview. “I was able to get a shot off. Something I work on a lot. Just trying to attack and get my shot off.” 

The United States had a 1-0 lead in the game until Sweden tied it with under two minutes to play in regulation.

“It’s tough to see them score with 90 seconds left,” Quinn said. “But we’re resilient. I think you saw us with that ‘no regret’ mantra in overtime.” 

Boldy assisted on Quinn’s overtime winner and was the first to leap into his teammate’s arms for the celebration.

Boldy also had his golden moment, scoring the first goal of the gold medal game for the United States with an outstanding move up the ice as he essentially passed the puck to himself through two Canadian defensemen as he scored just six minutes into the high-paced game. Quinn had the secondary assist on the goal. Boldy, who also scored a wraparound goal in the second game against Denmark, finished the tournament with two goals, two assists and 21 shots. 

Defenseman Faber, who was on the ice and the first to celebrate with Boldy after his goal in the gold medal game, played 108:04 in the tournament on the second pairing with Jacob Slavin (Carolina). Faber scored in the 5-1 win over Germany and had an assist in the 6-3 win over Denmark in pool play. 

The Wild connections on the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team go beyond the player rosters. Six members of the Wild organization were part of Team USA’s hockey operations staff: Wild General Manager Bill Guerin (General Manager), Wild Head Coach John Hynes (Assistant Coach), Wild Assistant General Manager Chris Kelleher (Director of Player Personnel), Wild Head Athletic Trainer John Worley and Assistant Athletic Trainer and Massage Therapist Travis Green (Athletic Trainers), and Wild Orthopedic Surgeon Joel Boyd (team physician).

The Wild were represented on four other Olympic teams: Czechia, Germany, Slovakia and Sweden. 

Defenseman Brodin was originally named to the Olympic team but could not attend after surgery for a lower body injury. Wild winger Johansson was named to the team as an injury replacement for another player, and he suited up for two games and registered 13:05 of ice time with one shot on goal in the Feb. 14 game against Slovakia. 

Both Wild goaltenders were Swedish Olympians. Gustavsson made 20 saves in the opening 5-2 win over Italy but allowed three goals in a 4-1 loss to Finland in the next game of the tournament. Wallstedt was the back-up goaltender for the team’s final three games in Milan but did not see time in net.

But one of the biggest goaltending stories from the Olympics came from Wild prospect Hlavaj with Slovakia. He turned heads right away with a 4-1 win over Finland in the opening game of the tournament. Hlavaj made 39 saves, including 18 in the first period, in that game. He started five of the six games, winning two games. Against Team USA, he was pulled after his team trailed 4-0 in the second period, making 19-of-23 saves in the 6-2 loss. 

Sturm and Germany also lost in the quarterfinals, 6-2 to Slovakia. Sturm scored a goal in the 5-1 win over France in the playoff game that sent Germany to the quarterfinals.

Iowa Wild defenseman Spacek played for Czechia. Unfortunately for Spacek, Czechia lost to Canada 4-3 in overtime in the quarterfinals. A win that day, Feb. 18, would have undoubtedly been a great 23rd birthday present for Spacek. He had an assist in the team’s 6-3 win over France.

Wild players who were not on Olympic teams resumed practices last week. Some of them watched the first two periods of the gold medal game at home before heading to TRIA Rink and watching the game’s conclusion before their morning practice. 

“Watching the ceremony after, seeing all those guys, how happy they were, such a big accomplishment from top to bottom,” said Ryan Hartman. “From Billy G. to Hynesy to the players. It’s really, really awesome.” 

They’ll welcome Guerin, Hynes and their Olympic staff and teammates back this week, resuming play with back-to-back road games at Colorado and Utah on Thursday and Friday. The Wild came into the break winning five in a row and are in second place in the Central Division standings.  

“We just hope they keep rolling, come back here excited,” said Marcus Foligno. “A chance just to keep winning. That’s what we want to do here. We want to end the season with the Stanley Cup.

“For those guys, they got a taste of winning.”