Donald Trump-Canada tensions flare up as White | Sports News

The White House delivered a pointed social media response to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following the Olympic males’s hockey gold medal match. Team USA males’s hockey triumphed over Canada 2-1 within the Olympic gold medal sport on Sunday morning, ending a 46-year drought.

Not solely did the Americans prevail over their longtime rivals on hockey’s grandest stage, however in addition they avenged a disappointing consequence from the earlier yr. During final yr’s 4 Nations Face-Off, which changed the NHL All-Star Game, the U.S. and Canada ignited an intense rivalry that includes a number of on-ice brawls in a nail-biting championship sport, ultimately gained by the Canadians 3-2.

That event foreshadowed the 2026 Olympics, the place NHL gamers would compete for the primary time since 2014, setting up an elite matchup between the world’s two premier hockey nations on the game’s most outstanding platform. The Olympics supplied Team USA an alternative for candy redemption, significantly after Trudeau, who departed as Canada’s Prime Minister in March 2025, posted a sharp taunt geared toward Trump on social media following his nation’s 4 Nations Face-Off victory. It got here after Canada followers slammed the lads’s hockey closing as “rigged” after a clear error by the officers.

“You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau wrote on X after Canada’s win final yr, referencing President Donald Trump‘s suggestion of making Canada the 51st U.S. state. Following Team USA’s gold medal victory on Sunday, the White House’s official X account fired back at Trudeau by posting an image of a bald eagle — America’s national chook — swooping down on a Canada goose.

The provocative image shortly unfold throughout social media, with numerous Americans sharing it as a image of national delight after their males’s hockey workforce topped Canada for the gold.

Yet amid all of the online banter, the extraordinary closeness of the competition appeared to get ignored.

In fact, both squad had a reputable shot at gold, significantly as soon as the sport was pushed into time beyond regulation, with each groups cut down from 5 skaters to 3.

As demonstrated time and again all through these Olympics, the 3-on-3 sudden-death time beyond regulation format unleashed a wide-open model of play, producing a number of rapid-fire scoring probabilities for each side.

Ultimately, it got here down to which workforce capitalized first — and that honor went to USA’s Jack Hughes, who struck only one minute and 41 seconds into the additional period.

Prior to time beyond regulation, the USA’s Matt Boldy broke the impasse six minutes into the sport, earlier than Canadian defenseman Cale Makar leveled the rating with underneath two minutes remaining within the second period.

Following a scoreless third period, Hughes — who had earlier misplaced a entrance tooth after taking a follow the face — buried the decisive purpose, securing the USA’s first males’s hockey gold medal since 1980.