Connor Hellebuyck delivered a goaltending performance for the ages, but every netminder needs a little help at times.
And in the third period of the USA’s heart-stopping 2-1 overtime win over the Canadians in Sunday’s gold medal game, the UMass Lowell product turned to another Hockey East product, Bruins defenseman and former Boston University Terrier Charlie McAvoy, for some game-saving assistance.
The Canadians threw everything at Hellebuyck with the score tied 1-1. A go-ahead goal for Canada seemed inevitable. At one juncture, former Bruin Brad Marchand threw the puck toward the net. In a scramble, Tom Wilson got the puck and he had Hellebuyck down and out. He flipped it over the netminder, but McAvoy was there on the goal line to block it with his chest and then scoop it with both hands away from danger without closing either one on the puck.
It was a huge moment in the game, which was eventually won on Jack Hughes’ golden goal less than two minutes into overtime to lift the Americans to a 2-1 win and their first gold medal since 1980.
And it was quite a moment for McAvoy. The Long Beach, N.Y., native grew up in the U.S. National Team Development Program. Last year at the 4 Nations tournament, McAvoy played a monster game when the Americans beat the Canadians early in the tournament in Montreal but was sidelined for the championship game in Boston with the shoulder injury that became dangerously infected and cost him the rest of the season.
He was overcome by emotion when Hughes’ goal went in.
“I can’t wait to see the footage of what happened after we scored, because it was a complete blackout, who I was hugging, where I was going. I don’t know what happened,” McAvoy told reporters in Italy. “It was euphoria, man. I can’t even explain what I was feeling. Just pure joy.”
There were plenty of local ties to this win. Millis and Boston College product Matt Boldy scored the game’s first goal. McAvoy’s Bruins teammate Jeremy Swayman, who won a game in the tourney, also took home the gold. Wilbraham native and BC alum Bill Guerin was the GM and, in fact, took some heat when he left scorers Cole Caufield and Jason Robertson off the roster.
And behind the bench was Mike Sullivan, son of Marshfield and BU and McAvoy’s father-in-law. Sullivan went to bat for Guerin.
“The team was built with personality in mind,” said Sullivan, the former Bruins and current Rangers coach who won two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh. “There are whiskey drinkers and milk drinkers. And we got a lot of whiskey drinkers.”