“Do you believe in miracles? YES!” was the famous line said by announcer Al Michaels when the USA Miracle team won gold during the 1980 Olympics on Feb. 22 against the Soviet Union.
On the same day and month in 2026, the USA men’s team did it again for the first time since that miracle team won. However, the men’s team was not alone in bringing home gold, with the USA women’s team doing it too, a couple of days before on Feb. 19, 2026.
This is the first time that both teams have had players from the men’s and women’s professional teams in North America, the NHL and PWHL, respectively, creating several important achievements in history, with the first being the double golden sweep.
USA Men’s Hockey accomplishments:
- They played Canada for gold (an iconic rivalry with the neighbors up north).
- With the USA team not winning gold since 1980, it marks 46 years since they have won.
- Team USA’s Matt Boldy scored the first goal of the game at the six-minute mark on Canada’s goaltender, Jordan Bennington.
- While the USA played a tight, fast and organized game, Connor Hellebuyck was the standout star, being one of the main reasons they won gold.
- Jack Hughes scored 1:41 minutes into a 20-minute sudden-death overtime, getting the golden goal, making it 2-1. This was just 15 minutes after getting hit in the face by a high stick from Sam Bennett of Canada, causing him to lose 2-3 teeth.
- This marks the first time in Olympic history that NHL players have won gold for the US.
USA Women’s Hockey accomplishments:
- Mirroring the men’s tournament final, they played for gold against Canada.
- This is the third Olympic gold for the women.
- The score was 0-1 with Canada up by one until Hillary Knight, USA Women’s captain, tied the game with 2:04 minutes left in regulation.
- The women’s team also went into 20-minute sudden-death overtime.
- Megan Keller got the golden goal at the 4:07 minute mark with an impressive move by moving the puck through her legs and shooting through the goalie’s legs, with the assist from Taylor Heise.
- While it was Hilary Knight’s last Olympics, she became the all-time Olympic leader of points in women’s history.
- Defender Laila Edwards was the first African-American player to play for the USA women’s Olympic team.
- Defender Caroline Harvey of the University of Wisconsin was named tournament MVP.
- Since the PWHL has only been an organization for 3 years, this is the first time women from a North American professional league have been in the Olympics.
- They had the longest shutout in Olympic history, with their goalie, Aerin Frankel, only letting in one goal during the entire tournament, which was during the final game.
