{"id":191275,"date":"2026-02-24T10:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191275\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:25:19","slug":"charlie-mcavoy-brings-long-beach-to-italy-as-friends-and-family-follow-his-gold-run-for-u-s-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191275\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie McAvoy brings Long Beach to Italy as friends and family follow his gold run for U.S. hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Hughes\u2019 overtime goal against Canada<\/a> delivered the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team its first gold medal since 1980<\/a> on Sunday, igniting celebrations across the country.<\/p>\n

The sense of American pride especially was felt in Long Beach, the hometown of U.S. defenseman and alternate captain Charlie McAvoy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But about 4,000 miles away in Milan, a contingent of Long Beach residents made the trip to the Olympics to root for McAvoy and the U.S. Their experience was priceless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the McAvoys. We’re pretty close with them and their family,\u201d said Mike Mechow, 46, who attended Team USA\u2019s last four games with his 21-year-old son, Patrick. \u201cBut me and my son were just on a mission to support the team and the country, and I never cheered as loud and as hard and got so excited as this tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to be at the gold medal game \u2014\u00a0after the game, I’m just getting all these messages. People congratulating me like I won something and just being so excited and everyone saying, \u2018What a moment. You\u2019ll remember this for the rest of your life.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were present in the moment, though. We knew this was something so special, to be able to be there at the biggest game ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nancy Black, who is friends with the Mechows, went to the Americans\u2019 overtime win over Sweden in the quarterfinals last Wednesday and their victory over Slovakia in the semifinals last Friday. She made a last-minute decision to hop on a flight to Italy because she \u201cknew that this was going to be a historic moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere was thrilling,\u201d Black said. \u201cIt was engaging. It was a proud moment. It was overwhelming. \u2026 It made you feel proud. Proud to be an American and proud to be from Long Beach watching Charlie McAvoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Mechow received a call from his father around\u00a0Christmas about the possibility of going to the Olympics. At first, he thought it was a joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously you dream about playing in the Olympics, you dream about going to the Olympics,\u201d said Patrick, who\u00a0played hockey for Long Beach High School. \u201cBut when my dad told me, I really thought he was kidding. I really had no expectations of coming to this. And then as it got closer and closer, I was like, \u2018All right, I guess we really are doing this.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now that we’re here, it didn’t feel real. While we were at the game, it didn’t. I see a lot of support for the USA on social media. At home, back in Long Beach, everyone rooted for Charlie. You could really get a sense of the community about how we had his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of the McAvoy family, others from Long Beach who were in Milan included two of McAvoy\u2019s friends, Mike Mechow said. Mike also said that three of his own friends were with their wives in Switzerland, and they jumped on the train for a day trip to Milan to watch the semifinals.<\/p>\n

The Mechows estimated Sunday\u2019s crowd was about 70% Canada fans. Patrick described it as \u201ca sea of red,\u201d but the U.S. fans were \u201cprobably louder somehow.\u201d He added that the Canada fans were very respectful and congratulated them after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the game when they raised that [American] flag, that was the best national anthem I ever sang in my entire life,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cAnd we wouldn’t have been able to have done it \u2014\u00a0the team, anyone \u2014\u00a0wouldn’t have been able to do it without the troops, without our veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black returned to Long Beach on Saturday. She said there is a banner on Beach Street with McAvoy\u2019s name on it, and a lot of people went to take pictures there after the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are Long Beach proud,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are Long Beach strong. We are a tight-knit community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blizzard on Long Island meant the Mechows could not fly back as scheduled Monday morning. They plan to fly to Finland on Wednesday, then back to New York from there. But under the circumstances, being stuck abroad could not be much better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we lost, I would definitely try to escape from here,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cBut whatever, if they told me I was trapped here for a week and with a gold medal, I would take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports’ general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday\u2019s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins’ teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes\u2019 overtime goal against Canada delivered the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team its first gold medal since 1980…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2063,79857,131,133,132,13504,404,89704,10012,89703],"class_list":{"0":"post-191275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-li-athletes","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-headlines","12":"tag-long-beach-news","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-oin","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-spadjacent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}