Connor Hellebuyck had one of the best goaltending performances of all-time in gold medal game
The United States defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime in the gold-medal game for men’s hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on Sunday. Despite Canada outshooting the U.S. 42-28, American netminder Connor Hellebuyck stood tall in the crease, stopping 41 shots and leading the U.S. to their first gold medal in men’s hockey since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.
Hellebuyck received lots of praise after the game, and was named the men’s hockey tournament’s Top Goaltender by the credential media. For the 32-year-old netminder, past struggles in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have tainted individual awards, which including winning the Vezina Trophy three times, as well as the Hart Trophy last season.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Hellebuyck’s gold-medal game and where it ranks among hockey’s greatest performances.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The numbers that have come out in the last 24 hours … the expected goals in the gold-medal game were 5.6 to 2.7 in favor of Team Canada in all situations., 4.4 of them coming at 5-on-5, and Hellebuyck let one past him. That’s like Dominik Hasek for Czechia in 1998.
It’s not hyperbole to call that one of the greatest goaltending performances in the history of the sport.
Carter Hutton: It was unbelievable. For a guy who has had so much pressure and so many question marks about him being good in big games and finding a way to break through was the biggest difference maker, in my opinion, for this Team USA.
This team that was built on a backend that would thought would just try to slow down Canada, but it didn’t go as planned. But then you circle back to the 4 Nations Face-Off, and I thought the U.S. was the better team in the final, but then you go back to this gold-medal game, they clearly weren’t. From start to finish, Canada dominated and had a ton of speed through the neutral zone, made it hard on Hellebuyck, but he was there every single waking moment.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…