MILAN — Team USA’s gold-medal win will be remembered by all for Jack Hughes’s overtime goal to seal the 2-1 victory over Canada. The only reason they were in that position was Connor Hellebuyck.
The Winnipeg Jets goaltender has won three Vezina trophies as the NHL’s best goalie and last year was named the league’s most valuable player.
But despite the accolades, questions remained. Could he handle the big moments? Hellebuyck has struggled in the last three NHL postseasons, his .918 save percentage dropping to .870. When he was chosen as No. 1 goalie for the American squad at the Olympics, plenty wondered if he might falter once again, when the lights were brightest.
Connor Hellebuyck’s stunning stick save on Devon Toews’s shot in the third period might go down as one of the greatest goaltending moments in US Olympic hockey history.Jared C. Tilton/Getty
The 32-year-old UMass Lowell product did no such thing.
On Sunday, he turned in his best performance yet, allowing just one goal on 42 Canadian shots to carry the United States to its first gold medal since 1980.
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“He was our best player by a mile,” said Millis native Matt Boldy, who had a highlight-reel moment of his own with his first-period goal. ”People like to have their opinions about him, but if you don’t have an opinion that he’s the best goalie in the world now, then I think you’re thinking wrong. He’s an absolute stud.”
Boldy wasn’t the only teammate raving about Hellebuyck. On the NBC broadcast after the game, Hughes called him the team’s MVP. Vincent Trocheck said he was their “backbone.”
“Today even more so than the rest of the tournament,” Trocheck said. “He saved our lives there a couple times in the third. He was unbelievable.”
His stunning stick save on Devon Toews’s shot in the third period might go down as one of the greatest goaltending moments in US Olympic hockey history.
“In a game like this? And to do it multiple times?” Trocheck remarked. “He saved our [expletive] two or three times, at least.”
Bruins star Charlie McAvoy had a simpler way to describe it: “He channeled his Jimmy Craig tonight.”
To be compared with the goaltender of the last American team to win gold is fitting. Hellebuyck finishes these Olympics with a tournament-best .956 save percentage. He allowed just six goals on 137 shots in five games. (The Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman played Team USA’s second game, a 6-3 win over Denmark, but Hellebuyck handled the others.) He was named the tournament’s best goaltender, which is hardly a surprise.
He earned this gold medal, that’s for sure.
“It feels good,” he said with the hardware around his neck. “I might not take it off.”
It was clear as he spoke with the media that he wasn’t thinking much about vindication, about silencing the voices who say he can’t deliver when the moment matters most.
“Those critics, they can keep writing. But they don’t understand goaltending. They definitely don’t understand my game,” Hellebuyck said. “I know what I’m putting forward. I know what I’m building. These are the moments that prove it.”
Prove it he did.
“They’re going to be talking about this performance for generations,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “If we don’t have him, we don’t win.”
Katie McInerney can be reached at katie.mcinerney@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram at @katiemac.sports.