Team Canada hockey showdowns in numbers: A glance back at milestone moments – National

For Canadians, watching a hockey showdown against the U.S. can feel like a tale as old as time.

Preparing to show off the work laptops — or a minimum of, turning on one other screen, too. Or perhaps watching the sport in one other time zone means staying up late and knowing you’ll pay for it at work the subsequent day.

Cuing up the gold medal hockey matchup between Canada and the U.S.

Pretending to … cough … work.

Canada and the U.S. are the one countries to win Olympic gold medals since women’s hockey was first introduced within the Olympics in 1998. The boys’s tournament remains to be being written, as Canada looks to tackle Finland on Friday in hopes of creating it to the gold medal game on Sunday, potentially meeting the U.S. there.

But historically, the margin of defeat amongst each countries has been small, and the games are virtually guaranteed to be nail-biters as greater geopolitical tensions sharpen the already intense rivalries between Team Canada and Team USA.

Here’s a look back at among the biggest milestone moments in past hockey showdowns between the 2 nations.

While not an Olympic tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 provided National Hockey League (NHL) players the chance to play in a global tournament, since there was a 12-year gap in NHL players attending the Olympics.

It was clear that the need to observe international hockey was high for NHL fans, as the ultimate game between Canada and the U.S. was watched by 16.1 million viewers in North America, with 9.3 million viewers in the US and 6.3 million in Canada.

This made the sport the second-most-watched hockey game prior to now decade.

The sport itself also didn’t disappoint, with three fights breaking out throughout the first nine seconds of the primary period, setting the stage for each an exciting game and a historic matchup between the rivals.

Canada took home the win due to an extra time goal by Connor McDavid, officially starting the countdown for the 2026 Olympic Games.

The 4 Nations Face-Off got here at a time of rising political tensions between Canada and the U.S., with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to annex Canada.

“What I’d prefer to see — Canada turn into our 51st state,” Trump said on Feb. 3, 2025.

“Some people say that might be an extended shot. If people desired to play the sport right, it could be 100 per cent certain that they’d turn into a state.”

Ahead of the Canada/U.S. matchup, Trump posted on Truth Social that he can be “calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, perhaps soon, turn into our cherished, and really necessary, Fifty First State.”

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Canadian fans booed The Star-Spangled Banner when it played before the opening faceoff, and the three fights got here not long after.

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Once Canada secured the win, former prime minister Justin Trudeau posted on X, “You may’t take our country — and you may’t take our game.”

Team Canada snagged the gold medal with a 3-2 win against the U.S. at Wukesong Sports Centre on Feb. 17, 2022. It was the fifth time Canada took home gold in women’s hockey at an Olympic Games.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice to steer Canada, with Sarah Nurse adding a goal and an assist while Ann-Renée Desbiens, stopping 38 of 40 shots, earned the win in net.

Poulin also became the primary player to attain in 4 Olympic finals, in line with Hockey Canada.

Canada also recorded a brand new single-tournament record of 57 goals, continuing to flex its talent across the roster.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) reported that this game was watched by 2.7 million Canadians and three.54 million Americans, making it the most-watched Olympic event that 12 months.

Despite the tens of millions of viewers, only 834 spectators were in a position to attend the sport, because it was the primary Olympics following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highlight from the sport helped mark a brand new era of ladies’s hockey. The Skilled Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was founded in August 2023, just 18 months after the gold medal game.

Thursday’s gold medal game will likely be the primary Olympics finals with the PWHL in motion, not only providing players with teams to play on but in addition somewhere for fans to proceed to consistently watch women’s hockey.

The U.S. women’s team snagged a victory against the Canadians with a 3-2 win, ending a streak of 4 straight Canadian gold medals in past games.

The championship was decided in a shootout for the primary time in Olympic history.

Despite Canada owning a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, American forward Monique Lamoureux-Morando scored on the 13:39 minute mark of the third period to equalize the rating.

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American forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson eventually scored the game-winning goal against Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados.

Despite the 11 p.m. eastern start time, the sport garnered 2.9 million viewers, which demonstrated the rise in viewership of ladies’s hockey from PyeongChang 2018 to Milan-Cortina 2026.

Once more, the Canadian women’s team got here out victorious against the U.S. with one other 3-2 win in extra time to take home the Olympic gold medal.

Marie-Philip Poulin and Brianne Jenner scored for the Canadians while Meghan Dunn and Alex Carpenter scored for the Americans.

Poulin netted the eventual game-winning goal on the 8:10 minute mark of the sport.

This game earned Poulin the nickname ‘Captain Clutch’ for her reliable play that brought her team excessive.

In what serves as considered one of the best Canadian sporting moments, due to the ‘Golden Goal,’ the Canadian men’s team beat the U.S. on home ice in a 3-2 Olympic extra time win.

Despite a 2-0 Canada lead halfway through the second period, the U.S. tied the sport due to goals from Ryan Kesler and Zach Parise.

It was then-22-year-old Sidney Crosby who scored in extra time on the 7:40 minute mark to bring the house crowd to its feet.

The sport itself is the most-watched televised event in Canadian history, with 26.5 million people in Canada tuning in sooner or later and marking a victorious end to the 17-day tournament.

Three days before that gold medal win by the Canadian men’s team, the Canadian women’s team had already beaten the Americans of their Olympic final game to assert the gold medal by a 2-0 rating.

Poulin scored the sport’s only goals while Canadian Szabados posted a 29-save shutout.