{"id":5710,"date":"2026-03-16T03:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/5710\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:46:09","slug":"us-beats-canada-6-2-in-para-ice-hockey-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/5710\/","title":{"rendered":"US beats Canada 6-2 in Para ice hockey final"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Three weeks after the United States beat Canada in the Olympic hockey finals<\/a>, the Americans overcame their neighbors again to win Paralympic gold and complete the sweep<\/a> at Milan Cortina<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In front of a packed arena, Jack Wallace scored a hat trick to help the U.S. beat Canada 6-2 in Sunday\u2019s Para ice hockey<\/a> final and become the first nation to win all three of the hockey tournaments at the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. There is currently no women\u2019s division at the Paralympics<\/a> as it is classified as an open-gender sport.<\/p>\n

Kayden Beasley, Declan Farmer \u2014 the tournament\u2019s MVP \u2014 and Brody Roybal scored the other goals for the U.S. Liam Hickey bagged both goals for Canada, which pushed its rivals hard before conceding three in the final period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad we got it done because I think there\u2019s a little bit more pressure with the men and women getting the golds too,\u201d U.S. captain Josh Pauls said. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy we could do it for USA hockey and I think it really just shows like how much they \u2026 invest in the grassroots programs because we have so many young players coming up and playing pivotal roles on our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those he\u2019s seen progress at close hand is Wallace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get much better than that,\u201d Wallace said with a broad smile when asked about his hat trick.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Wallace, who grew up loving hockey, had his right leg amputated above the knee after a water-skiing accident at age 10 and thought his dreams of playing the sport at the highest level were over before discovering Para ice hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think watching Jack Wallace go from the player he was when he first started, from a kid who just wanted to be back on the ice after losing his leg and now to watch him score a hat trick, it\u2019s just so awesome to be a part of people\u2019s lives and to watch them succeed and put in the work,\u201d Pauls said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on the ice for the first time when he was on his sled and so to watch those guys blossom is just the ultimate honor and to be their teammate is the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to me,\u201d Pauls said.<\/p>\n

While the Olympics saw the U.S. men\u2019s team win gold for the first time since the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d<\/a> in 1980, it\u2019s a very different story at the Paralympics.<\/p>\n

It was a fifth straight title for the U.S. and Pauls \u2014 Wallace now has three and several of his teammates have four.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s kind of crazy, I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Pauls said with a laugh. \u201cI mean I don\u2019t think you ever start out wanting to win five consecutive and to be the most decorated player in the sport and so I think this team is just so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. has won six of the past seven editions of the Winter Paralympics<\/a>. It was a third straight loss in the final for Canada, which won its only para ice hockey gold on Italian ice, in Turin in 2006.<\/p>\n

Earlier, China claimed a second successive bronze medal as it fought back from conceding two goals in the opening three minutes to beat Czech Republic 3-2.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s final set a new record attendance for the sport at a major tournament as 10,795 fans filled the near-capacity stands.<\/p>\n

The mark had been set<\/a> in the opening match of the tournament with the preliminary round game between the U.S. and host nation Italy drawing 8,992 spectators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I could have imagined this,\u201d Pauls said. \u201cI mean it\u2019s just so cool. I know this building was packed for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Olympic finals and to be packed for us, I think, shows the parity of sled hockey compared to stand up ice hockey. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think we had some really passionate fans. I didn\u2019t realize so much of Italy was Canadian! And there was definitely some chants, but I\u2019m glad we could kind of silence them a little bit … it was such a great atmosphere to play in.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Paralympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/paralympic-games<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Three weeks after the United States beat Canada in the Olympic hockey finals, the Americans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4512,4511,2726,4513,4508,8,2727,4505,4515,4509,4510,9,4507,1199,7,4514,4506],"class_list":{"0":"post-5710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-brody-roybal","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canada-olympic-team","12":"tag-declan-farmer","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-italy","15":"tag-jack-wallace","16":"tag-josh-pauls","17":"tag-kayden-beasley","18":"tag-liam-hickey","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-parasports","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-united-states-olympic-team","24":"tag-winter-paralympic-games"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116236804596394275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}