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USA win fifth straight gold in Paralympics ice hockey / Photo: Stefano RELLANDINI - AFP
USA win fifth straight gold in Paralympics ice hockey
The United States of America brought an end to competition at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics on Sunday by claiming their fifth straight gold medal in ice hockey, courtesy of a 6-2 victory over Canada.
A Jack Wallace triple steered the US to a dominant win over their North American neighbours at Milan's Santagiulia Arena.
Kayden Beasley, Declan Farmer and Brody Roybal supplied the other goals for the defending champions, with Liam Hickey on target for the silver medallists.
"There's lot of relief, for sure," Farmer said. "It's so much pressure builds up to it. And I think for me, this was the most anxious I was for any gold medal game in my whole career.
"I'm just so happy for the guys, we earned it together. This group is great," the four-time Paralympic champion added.
Wallace gave the US the lead after eight minutes, before Hickey levelled early in the second period for Canada.
The States then moved two ahead thanks to a quickfire brace from Beasley and Wallace.
Wallace completed his hat-trick early in the third period, before Hickey struck again to give Canada a glimmer of hope.
But as the runners-up from the last two Paralympics pushed forward to try and halve the deficit, the US pounced with Farmer and Roybal both scoring in the 42nd minute to sew up a 13th gold medal of the 2026 Games for their country.
Earlier in the bronze medal match, China came from two goals down to beat Czech Republic 3-2 and secure back-to-back third-placed finishes, following on from Beijing 2022.
"It feels great. After so many years of hard work, working as a team, we were able to keep fighting and persevere," match winner Tian Jintao said.
"Even when we were two goals behind, we managed to equalise and then win. I'm very, very happy."
The Czechs raced into a two-goal lead inside the opening three minutes of the first period thanks to Pavel Kubes and Radek Zelinka.
But the Chinese struck back to level terms midway through the opening period courtesy of Tian and Wang Zhidong.
The winner came just 18 seconds into the third period as Tian netted his second of the match to send his table-topping country towards a total 44 medals at the Games.
M.Johnston--SMC
