Matthew Tkachuk said in early May that Team USA wasn’t going to Switzerland for a vacation.
He wasn’t kidding.
The United States beat Austria, 4-1, Tuesday at the IIHF World Championship, punching its ticket to the quarterfinals and setting up exactly what the hockey world wanted: USA vs. Canada.
Again.
Just three months after Team USA beat Canada in overtime to win its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since the 1980 Lake Placid team finished off its “Miracle on Ice” run, the two North American rivals are set for another winner-take-all showdown on Thursday.
This one isn’t for Olympic gold.
But don’t tell the Americans it doesn’t matter.
Don’t tell the Canadians, either. There’s no question that Canada wants some revenge for what happened in Italy.
The U.S. entered Tuesday needing a win over Austria to extend its tournament, and the defending world champions wasted little time making sure there wouldn’t be any drama. Connor Clifton opened the scoring 5:34 into the first period, and Ryan Ufko followed just 45 seconds later with a slap shot past Austrian goalie Atte Tolvanen.
That was pretty much that.
Paul Cotter made it 3-0 early in the second period, and Tkachuk added a power-play goal later in the frame to put the game away. Austria spoiled Devin Cooley’s shutout bid late in the second, but the Americans held on comfortably enough to keep their title defense alive.
More importantly, they earned another shot at Canada.
“We’re going to need our absolute best to have a chance,” Tkachuk said, according to the IIHF.
That’s true.
It’s also exactly why this matchup is so good, even if many of the best players in the world will be absent.
Team USA isn’t rolling out the same loaded roster that won Olympic gold in Milan, with Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews, Brady Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and several other stars leading the way. Many NHL players skip the annual IIHF tournament because of their professional hockey commitments.
Canada isn’t at full Olympic strength, either, but let’s be honest: when Sidney Crosby, Macklin Celebrini, Evan Bouchard, John Tavares, Ryan O’Reilly, Mark Scheifele, Morgan Rielly and Darnell Nurse don the maple leaf, Canada means business.
It also makes it clear that Canada wants to win this tournament, badly.
That’s why this game matters, even if it’s not a full best-on-best matchup.
The conversation around USA Hockey has changed. For decades, Canada’s biggest advantage wasn’t just that it had great players. Of course Canada had great players. The country produces hockey players the way America produces football players. And basketball players. And baseball players. And now, hockey players.
Canada’s biggest advantage was that international hockey felt like part of the country’s identity. The best Canadians showed up because winning in that sweater was part of the job.
American players have always been proud to wear the red, white and blue. But for a long time, the average American sports fan didn’t treat most international hockey tournaments like a potential source of national pride. They cared every four years when the Olympics rolled around. But it wasn’t the same year-round obsession that exists north of the border.
That feels different now.
After the 4 Nations Face-Off, Olympic gold and the rise of this American generation, there’s more buy-in from everyone. The fans care more. The country is paying attention. And when that happens, the sweater means just a little bit more. These games feel bigger, and the players don’t have to manufacture that edge on their own.
That’s why Tkachuk’s buy-in matters, and it’s what made his recent comments on “The Pat McAfee Show” so important. He made sure to stress that the World Championship isn’t a European vacation with a few hockey games mixed in. He made it clear Team USA was going there to win gold.
Tkachuk was named to the preliminary U.S. roster on May 7, but he didn’t join the Americans for the opening stretch of the tournament. That’s not unusual at the World Championship, where NHL-heavy rosters can look different from week to week and players often arrive after the tournament is already underway.
Team USA went 1-2 without him. Since Tkachuk got into the lineup, the Americans haven’t exactly steamrolled through the tournament in Switzerland. They needed a shootout to beat Germany and lost to Latvia. But they’ve also scored 17 goals in four games, beat Hungary and Austria when they had to, and now they are facing the exact matchup everyone wanted.
Tkachuk didn’t solve every roster issue. But he did give the Americans a little more edge and a little more belief.
That belief is what Canada has had forever.
It’s what the United States is building now.
The Americans won the World Championship last year for the first time in 92 years. They beat Switzerland, 1-0, in overtime to win gold. Then they followed that by beating Canada in the Olympic final in February, a 2-1 overtime thriller that gave the U.S. its first Olympic men’s hockey gold medal since Lake Placid.
Now comes the next test.
The Canadians enter the knockout stage unbeaten through seven games, with six regulation wins, one overtime win, 20 points and a 33-13 goal differential. They opened with a 5-3 win over Sweden, blasted Italy, handled Denmark, Slovenia and Slovakia, survived a scare with a 6-5 overtime win over Norway, and rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Czechia 3-2.
So, yes, Canada should feel pretty good about itself for clinching the top spot in Group B and not losing a single game. The Canadians probably feel good about the Americans finishing fourth in Group A, too.
But none of that really matters now because it’s USA vs. Canada. Throw out everything that’s happened so far.
The Americans don’t need a perfect roster to make this interesting. They need enough talent, enough goaltending and enough buy-in.
They got enough of all three against Austria.
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Ufko, one of the goal scorers Tuesday, said the Americans knew exactly what kind of game they were playing.
“It feels good,” Ufko said, according to the IIHF. “We knew that it was a winner-go-home type of game, a playoff game. We’re really proud with the way it went, and we’re just looking forward to the quarterfinals now.”
They should be.
Because for USA Hockey, these games are no longer simply measuring-stick moments against big brother Canada. Those days are over.
The Americans are the defending world champions. They’re the defending Olympic champions. They’ve won at the junior level. They’ve got stars all over the NHL. They’ve got a generation of players that not only can beat Canada, but expects to beat Canada.
That shift hasn’t gone unnoticed.
The 4 Nations Face-Off showed it. The Olympics confirmed it. Tkachuk’s World Championship arrival reinforced it.
Team USA isn’t chasing Canada anymore.
They’re the ones being chased.
