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Take a bow, Megan Keller and Jack Hughes, legends for life on an Eruzione level. Off the stick of Hughes, the men captured their first gold since the iconic 1980 Winter Olympics, and their first ever in a Games not held on US soil. Off the stick of Keller, captain of the Boston Fleet and a BC product, the US women took home gold for the third time since the women skaters were introduced into the five-ring festival in 1998.
The high-stakes hockey (tariff-free) represented the best sports have to offer, reminiscent in these parts of the early aughts battles between the Sox and Yankees and the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts — dramatic, intense, and engrossing. They’re battles that strike that sweet spot of feeling familiar yet unpredictable at the same time, hence the enhanced thrill of victory and agony of defeat.
Losing hurts more because it’s them.
Brad Marchand (63), captain Connor McDavid and the rest of the Canadian team try to come to grips to losing Sunday’s gold-medal final to the United States. DOUG MILLS/NYT
“That’s why it’s the best rivalry in the sport,” said Canada women’s captain Marie-Philip Poulin after her team’s defeat. One slight correction, Marie-Philip: no article required in front of sport. It’s the best rivalry in sport, as the Brits would say.
The ingredients present in any great sports rivalry are passion, bragging rights, repeated competition, and enmity. USA vs. Canada in hockey weaves them all into those sweaters. They stand for national pride and stand in each other’s way.
All but one of the eight Olympic women’s hockey gold medal games has featured the USA vs. Canada. It’s now Canada 4, United States 3.
Boston Fleet captain Megan Keller scores the golden goal to give Team USA the 2-1 victory over Canada last Thursday.Alexander Nemenov/Associated Press
This century, the US men lost to Canada in the Olympic gold medal match in 2002 in Salt Lake City, and on Sidney Crosby’s glorious golden goal at the 2010 Vancouver Games. More recently, the Canadian All-Stars one-upped the red, white, and blue in the instant-classic 4 Nations Face-Off final last February at TD Garden, with Connor McDavid doing what he couldn’t do in Sunday’s gold medal game — slipping the puck past American goalie Connor Hellebuyck in overtime.
Watching both gold medal games was sports fan nirvana — exhilarating, exhausting emotionally, and excellent.
I could watch the men play each other for a month straight, given how white hot their cold war confrontations are. The US skaters made no secret they wanted the Canadian Dream Team in the gold medal game.
“It’s the final that we wanted and the team that we wanted to play,” said Millis-raised Matt Boldy, who spectacularly scored the first US goal in the gold medal game. “It’s exciting for the fans and for hockey.”
The Americans’ gold medal victory had a decidedly Massachusetts flair, with Millis’ own Matt Boldy (left) and Norwood’s Noah Hanifin (right) donning the hard-earned hardware.Gregory Shamus/Getty
A moment to acknowledge that while the rivalries are equally heated on the men’s and women’s sides, they’re not equal matchups.
The United States is the favorite and heavyweight on the women’s side. They’ve tilted the ice to the south. They’ve defeated Canada eight straight times. The powerhouse US women outscored opponents, 33-2, and won all seven of their contests on the way to becoming golden gals.
Someone tell the president that most of their games were the real laughers. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman acknowledged he and his USA Hockey teammates shouldn’t have played the compliant studio audience for President Trump’s humor, undercutting their female counterparts’ achievement.
The men’s version of hockey’s Battle of North America was more of a toss-up. The teams served up an edge-of-your-seat sequel to their 4 Nations showdown.
Kudos to the NHL Players’ Association for pushing for the return to the Olympic stage after the league sidelined players for 2018 in Pyeongchang and 2022 in Beijing. Sometimes the NHL wins in spite of itself.
The Yanks, who finished 6-0, hadn’t defeated Canada in a medal game in a best-on-best tournament since winning the 1996 World Cup of Hockey by upending their rivals, 5-2, in the deciding game of the best-of-three final.
Unfazed by hockey’s Harlem Globetrotters, the United States prevailed on American can-do attitude, grit, great individual efforts to win puck battles on both goals, and goaltending for the ages from three-time Vezina Trophy winner and reigning NHL MVP Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck’s divine prevention save on Canada’s Devon Toews will forever be part of American hockey lore, memorialized in bars, rinks, and basements. It alone, never mind his 41 additional saves, is worthy of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
US goaltender Connor Hellebuyck earned all the plaudits, and he’ll soon be getting another medal to add to his collection. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images
While the American players were celebrated by their government for days, the absence of gold for the Canadian men is a national calamity and cause for soul-searching. It’s exacerbated by the current state of relations between the two countries. You know, all that 51st state taunting from President Trump.
Perpetually forced into America’s shadow, despite geographically owning the high ground, it’s tough for Canada to lose to us in a sport so closely tied to their national identity.
Almost the moment Hughes whistled the puck past Jordan Binnington, there was lament and consternation from north of the border about the players that Canada general manager Doug Armstrong left off an embarrassment of riches roster that looked embarrassed accepting those silver medals.
This would be akin to Toronto-born Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Canadian men’s basketball team downing a USA Basketball Dream Team for the gold at the Summer Olympics.
Only one country won gold in the USA-Canada hockey head-to-heads, but we won as sports fan, watching the mettle of both countries.
Best. Rivalry. Going.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.