It’s the gold standard now.
Team USA alum made it loud and clear that its first Olympic men’s hockey championship since the 1980 Miracle on Ice isn’t from hell freezing over this go-around, but instead the result of what generations laid the groundwork for.
“USA Hockey has been building towards this since 1980,” Olympian Ken Morrow told The Post Sunday, adding that he “never had any doubts” that the men would earn gold again.
Morrow, who got up at 6 a.m. for a raucous watch party Sunday, wasn’t the only one giddy to see the 2-1 overtime barn-burning, winner-take-all dogfight against Canada. It became the peak moment of “pure joy” he’s shared with fellow “Miracle on Ice” members throughout the 2026 games.
“We’ve had a text thread going throughout the Olympics,” Morrow said. “It’s just been nothing but ‘Go USA’ through it all.”
Things were a family affair for many former Team USA members, about all of whom flooded the current men’s and women’s rosters with support letters, said former two-time Olympian Pat LaFontaine of Lloyd Harbor.
“[My letter] was telling the guys, ‘Grab the wheel and drive the bus. This is your time,’ basically quoting the great Herb Brooks,” said LaFontaine, who is confident the next men’s gold won’t have a 46-year wait.
Morrow, who won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders mere months after capturing gold, said Brooks, head coach of the 1980 Team USA, had inspired the current Team USA’s “style that emphasized skating, speed, skill, puck possession.”
“I think he would be very proud to see where USA Hockey has come,” added the one-time Northport man, now a scouting director for the Islanders in Kansas City.
LaFontaine played for post-miracle America, when public sentiment was not optimistic about the red, white, and blue.
“Our generation, we were always told, ‘the reason they call it a miracle, was because it was a miracle — you’ll never beat best on best,” said the former Islander, Sabre and Ranger.
“We had heard that for years.”
He didn’t win Olympic gold in 1984 or 1998, but silenced critics in the 1996 World Cup.
LaFontaine and teammates, including current US general manager Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk — the dad of 2026 gold medalists Matthew and Brady — won first over the Canadians in a best-of-three final.
Until Sunday, it was the last time the American men beat Canada for a gold.
“It was many years of sacrifice to get to this next generation … Now the 2026 team, they’re carrying on the tradition,” said LaFontaine, who Morrow’s miracle group inspired as a teen and beat the Soviet Union on his birthday — the same day America won gold in 2026.
“We’re sitting back today with a massive smile of pride and a tear in our eyes, and are just grateful for what the game has meant to the United States.”
Both LaFontaine and Morrow also praised Long Island’s Charlie McAvoy, whose defensive heroics helped fend off Canada’s relentless attack on multiple occasions during Sunday’s gold medal match.
“[He’s] blazing a path for more Long Island kids to follow,” Morrow said of the Boston Bruin from Long Beach.
“Many of these players will go on and maybe win a Stanley Cup, maybe win other championships, but this is the pinnacle.”
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