Goalie, defenseman fall in gold medal game to USA, 2-1 in overtime at 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics
For Jordan Binnington and Colton Parayko, the St. Louis Blues players have to settle for silver.
In one of the more entertaining games one can find, the United States brought home the glory, winning gold for the first time since 1980 when Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils) scored at 1:41 of overtime to give the USA a thrilling 2-1 win at Santagiulia IHO Arena in Milan, Italy on Sunday.
Hughes beat Binnington from the bottom of the left circle in a 1 on 1 situation after Hughes initially poked a puck free, and then took a feed from Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets) and opening up Binnington, who robbed Jack's brother Quinn Hughes (Minnesota Wild) not long earlier:
It set off a celebration of a game that was action-packed from the moment the puck dropped at 7:10 a.m. (CT) to its conclusion with action at both ends, terrific goaltending -- USA's Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets) played out of his mind with 41 saves -- what ifs on both sides and tension so thick, you needed a knife to cut through it.
Binnington finished the game with 26 saves and was 4-0-1 in the tournament with a 1.78 goals-against average and .917 save percentage, while Parayko played 18:00 and recorded three shots on goal.
It was a strong showing in the end for the five Blues Olympians, including Dalibor Dvorsky, who had six points (three goals, three assists) in six games for fourth place Slovakia, which fell 6-1 on Saturday in the bronze medal game to Finland.
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