MILAN — Zach Werenski and his U.S. men’s hockey teammates tried not to look ahead to a potential gold-medal game against Canada at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
After each went unbeaten in group play over the past week-plus, there was no way the North American rivals could meet before the final, but there was work left to do.
With the Americans routing Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals Friday night, the highly anticipated but never guaranteed Canada-U.S. showdown for gold is on.
“It’s the matchup everyone wanted,” Werenski said after his three-assist performance against Slovakia. “Now that it’s finally here, we can kind of shift our focus to Canada.”
The two top seeds in the tournament, who went in as the favorites, will meet Sunday. It comes a year after the same countries played two memorable games against each other at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a tournament hosted by Canada and the United States that also included Finland and Sweden.