{"id":492143,"date":"2026-02-22T14:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492143\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:12:09","slug":"montrealers-up-early-to-support-canada-in-olympic-gold-medal-showdown-u-s-leads-1-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492143\/","title":{"rendered":"Montrealers up early to support Canada in Olympic gold medal showdown, U.S. leads 1-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 7:30 a.m., a line was already forming outside La Cage at the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal, as bundled-up fans braved the cold for a chance to watch Team Canada take on the United States in the Olympic men\u2019s hockey gold medal game.<\/p>\n

\"\"Montrealers brave the cold and line up outside La Cage downtown ahead of the Canada-U.S. Olympic gold medal men\u2019s hockey game on Feb. 22, 2026. (Lola Kalder, CityNews)<\/p>\n

The U.S. is currently in the lead after Matt\u00a0Boldy scored in the first period assisted by teammates Auston\u00a0Matthews,\u00a0Quinn\u00a0Hughes and beating Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington.<\/p>\n

The puck dropped at 8:10 a.m., but that didn\u2019t stop Montreal supporters from arriving well before sunrise, many draped in red-and-white jerseys as they waited for doors to open. Inside, big screens and breakfast plates were ready, and so were the chants of \u201cGo Canada Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Montreal fans fill La Cage downtown to watch Team Canada face the U.S. in the Olympic men\u2019s gold medal hockey game on Feb. 22, 2026 (Lola Kalder, CityNews)<\/p>\n

The highly anticipated final follows Canada\u2019s dramatic semifinal win over Finland on Friday, when the team stormed back from a 2\u20130 deficit with three unanswered goals to punch their ticket to the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

\"\"Canada\u2019s Sam Reinhart (13) celebrates with Nathan MacKinnon (29) and Macklin Celebrini (17) after Reinhart scored a goal against Finland during the second period of a men\u2019s ice hockey semifinal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster)<\/p>\n

There is a major change to the lineup this morning. Canadian captain Sidney Crosby will not dress for the showdown as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury suffered earlier in the tournament. <\/p>\n

Crosby skated at practice on Saturday and was considered a game-time decision, but will sit out the final.<\/p>\n

Instead, superstar forward Connor McDavid will wear the captain\u2019s \u2018C\u2019 for the second straight game, leading a roster that has shown resilience throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n

With Olympic gold on the line against the U.S., Montreal is wide awake and ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By 7:30 a.m., a line was already forming outside La Cage at the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-492143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}