{"id":469752,"date":"2026-02-24T16:17:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469752\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:17:52","slug":"jack-hughes-golden-goal-caps-monster-shift-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469752\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes’ Golden Goal Caps Monster Shift, Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Hughes nearly didn\u2019t get to become an American hero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sitting in the penalty box late in the third period of a 1-1 gold-medal game against Canada on Sunday, the superstar New Jersey Devils<\/a> forward seemed more likely to cost the United States the game than win it for his country. <\/p>\n

\u201cI pictured myself on Barstool [Sports] as the guy America hates because Canada scores on the power play,\u201d Hughes said after the game. \u201cI was like \u2018oh my God, here it is.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cJust glad we got out of that pickle I put us in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, after Hughes\u2019 teammates picked him up, he made sure to return the favor by capping a monster shift at both ends of the rink with the game-winning goal at 1:39 of overtime in the United States\u2019 2-1 overtime win over Canada at Milano Santagiuliano Arena that sealed USA\u2019s first gold medal since 1980.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Most Devils fans who were \u201cdone\u201d with Jack Hughes before the tournament may need to serenade him with a \u201cSorry Jack\u201d chant, a la the Lindy Ruff treatment during the 2022-23 season, especially if he uses his first Olympics as a springboard for the rest of this season and beyond.<\/p>\n

Hughes finished with four goals and seven points, leading the Americans in both categories. He finished tied for second-most goals among all players with Nathan MacKinnon (Canada) and Juraj Slafkovsky of Slovakia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Jack had a terrific tournament,\u201d USA coach Mike Sullivan said after the game. \u201cThe goals he scored were big-time goals. \u2026 I think Jack was at the center of a lot of the good things that happened for our team. He\u2019s a high-stakes player. He brought his very best when the stakes were the highest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes proved his coach\u2019s point by authoring two elite-level plays that saved the Americans\u2019 bacon and allowed himself to further stamp his legacy in the history of USA Hockey.<\/p>\n

The Defense on Connor McDavid<\/p>\n

Hughes didn\u2019t start overtime on the ice, but he went on for the Americans\u2019 third shift of the extra session. <\/p>\n

His first task of overtime? Playing defense against the best player in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Connor McDavid bearing down on Hughes and the U.S. net with a full head of steam. He took the puck from linemate, and breakout Canadian star Macklin Celebrini, at his own blue line and rushed ahead with speed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came right off the bench,\u201d Hughes said, before addressing Sullivan and saying \u201cYou probably were loving that, right Sully? McDavid coming down on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid eats up even elite-level NHL defensemen on rushes like this every night. He has 96 points in 58 games this season and averages 1.5 points per game for his decade-plus in the NHL and was named the MVP of the tournament after leading the entire Olympic field with 13 points.<\/p>\n

And on this play he\u2019s being defended by a 5-11, 175-pound forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the best player in the world \u2014 maybe ever \u2014 is comes down on you in overtime in the gold-medal game and you\u2019re a forward, my first thought was \u2018I\u2019ve got to gap up,’\u201d Hughes said, \u201cand I was like \u2018I can\u2019t gap up, he\u2019ll blow right by me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yet, Hughes did what he needed to do to slow McDavid down and stymie any potential scoring chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did a great job,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe recognized that he didn\u2019t have an opportunity to gap up on it. He just absorbed it. I think he did a terrific job defending him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI just sunk in, and hopefully he can\u2019t get around me because there\u2019s not enough space between me and the net,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThat\u2019s honestly kind of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Poke Check on Cale Makar<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 second defensive play may be lost compared to bodying McDavid and scoring a golden goal. But his help exiting the defensive zone was no less important <\/p>\n

Hughes dislodged the puck from McDavid and took it behind the net before kicking the puck to USA defenseman Zach Werenski. But the forechecking McDavid pressured Werenski, and he made a soft backhand pass toward Hughes to exit the zone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yet, looming at the blue line was Cale Makar \u2014 the Connor McDavid of defensemen. Makar was named one of two defensemen to the All-Olympic team, along with Jack\u2019s brother Quinn Hughes, since he had six points in six games and Canada\u2019s lone goal in the gold-medal game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Werenski was breaking out of the USA defensive zone to play offense. So if Makar intercepts the pass \u2014 or even makes a strong tip of it \u2014 McDavid is in all alone on goalie Connor Hellebuyck and scores the OT winner for the second time in as many best-on-best tournaments.<\/p>\n

Yet, it was Hughes who managed to tip the puck past Makar and to Werenski, creating the three-on-one that ultimately led to his goal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Finding the Quiet Ice and Scoring the Goal<\/p>\n

The puck drifted all the way down to the USA offensive zone, where Werenski won a puck battle from Nathan MacKinnon. Dylan Larkin went to support Werenski while McDavid defended, and Hughes peeled off to get into prime scoring territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With Makar trailing the play, Werenski found Hughes. Hughes beat Binnington with a snipe between the pads that surely reminded Devils fans of what has made them one of the NHL\u2019s elite 3-on-3 overtime teams over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 goal will change his life. Yet, in the moments after scoring arguably the biggest goal in American hockey history, he was more focused on fulfilling a dream and doing it with his USA Hockey brothers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a great team,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWe wanted to go through Canada and beat them, and it could have gone either way tonight, but that\u2019s an unbelievable win for the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tPat Pickens is an award-winning sports writer and author who has covered the NHL since 2013. He has covered … More about Pat Pickens<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes nearly didn\u2019t get to become an American hero. Sitting in the penalty box late in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5109],"tags":[1116,155,201,5,1272,517,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-469752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-cale-makar","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-devils","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jack-hughes","13":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","14":"tag-new-jersey","15":"tag-new-jersey-devils","16":"tag-newjersey","17":"tag-newjerseydevils","18":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116126516953701957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}