The White House posted an image on X targeting former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the United States beat Canada in overtime to win the men’s ice hockey gold medal at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the first U.S. men’s Olympic hockey title since 1980. The win came days after the U.S. women also defeated Canada in overtime to take gold.
The United States defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime on Sunday in the men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, securing the program’s first Olympic gold since 1980.
The victory—decided by an overtime goal from Jack Hughes—came 46 years to the day after the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, when the U.S. men’s team’s run became known as the “Miracle on Ice.”
After the final, the White House posted an image on X depicting a bald eagle slamming a Canada goose onto an ice surface. The post echoed a message Trudeau had shared on X after Canada beat the U.S. in overtime in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship in February 2025. “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau wrote at the time, a line widely interpreted as a rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Canada becoming a “51st state.”
Tensions between the fan bases had also been evident during the earlier U.S.-Canada matchup at the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal, when some fans booed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and in the Boston final, where there was scattered booing during “O Canada,” according to contemporaneous reporting.
Trump also congratulated the U.S. team on social media following the Olympic win.
The men’s title followed Thursday’s women’s gold medal game in Milan, where the United States rallied late and beat Canada 2-1 in overtime. Entering that final, the Americans had outscored opponents 31-1 in their first six games and carried a shutout streak of more than 350 minutes, a run that ended in the gold medal game.
