Three weeks after the United States beat Canada in the Olympic hockey finals, the Americans overcame their neighbors again to win Paralympic gold and complete the three-peat at Milan Cortina.
Jack Wallace scored a hat-trick to help the US beat Canada 6-2 in Sunday’s Para ice hockey final and become the first nation to sweep the hockey tournaments at the Olympics and Paralympics. There is currently no women’s division at the Paralympics as it is classified as an open-gender sport.
Sunday marked a fifth straight Paralympic title for the US and their captain, Josh Pauls.
While the Olympics saw the US men’s team win gold for the first time since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, it’s a very different story at the Paralympics. The US have won six of the past seven editions of the Winter Paralympics. It was a third straight loss in the final for Canada, who won their only para ice hockey gold on Italian ice, in Turin in 2006.
Earlier, China claimed a second successive bronze medal as they fought back from conceding two goals in the opening three minutes to beat Czech Republic 3-2.
Sunday’s final set a new record attendance for the sport at a major tournament as 10,755 fans filled the near-capacity stands.
The mark had been set in the opening match of the tournament with the preliminary round game between the US and host nation Italy drawing 8,992 spectators.
