The American penalty kill remains perfect.
Team USA leaned on its reliable special-teams unit to escape a couple nervous moments in the gold-medal game.
After taking back-to-back penalties in the second period against Canada and another with only minutes left in regulation, the Americans needed their penalty kill to come up big — just as it had all tournament.
Coming into the gold-medal game, the U.S. penalty kill was perfect at 15-for-15. Now, it stands 18-for-18.
Jake Guentzel took the first penalty for interference on Brandon Hagel after he dragged him down in the defensive zone in the second. Not long after, Charlie McAvoy got called for a hooking penalty on Cale Makar, who was trying to break through the zone on a solo rush.
Canada sent out its top power-play unit for the 5-on-3 advantage and had its opportunities, but Connor Hellebuyck came up big while the penalty killers did their best to clean up any second chances by clearing the zone.
In the end, the group that included forwards J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Dylan Larkin and Brock Nelson, along with defencemen Brock Faber, Jake Sanderson and Jaccob Slavin, maintained the Americans’ perfect penalty kill down two men.
Then, with under seven minutes left in regulation, Canadian Sam Bennett was called for a high-sticking double-minor penalty after his stick caught Jack Hughes in the face on the forecheck.
On the back foot, Canada’s penalty kill featuring Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Thomas Harley and Colton Parayko put some solid pressure on the U.S. in the defensive zone and never let their opponents get set up.
Then, just over halfway through the kill, Jack Hughes was called for a high stick of his own, and the game went to four-on-four for a moment before Canada found itself right back on the mad-advantage.
But as they’ve done all game, and all tournament, the Americans held steady on special teams, preventing more Canadian late-game magic and managed to get the gold-medal showdown to overtime.