TAMPA, Fla. — Jake Guentzal is no stranger to the big stage.
The Tampa Bay Lightning forward helped the United States knock off Canada in Sunday’s gold medal win.
It was Team USA’s first Olympic gold since the 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”
The game had all of the drama with American Jack Hughes scoring the golden goal in overtime.
“I wish I could remember. I blacked out, excitement, the relief,” Guentzel said. “You’re kind of nervous going into overtime. But it couldn’t happen to a better guy.
To get the gold, Guentzel had to go through his Bolts’ teammate, Canadian Brandon Hagel.
“I love Hags. He’s one of my best friends on this team. We were talking throughout the whole tournament,” Guentzel said. “Once this game kind of hit though it’s playing for your country. It was fun to go against him, compete against those guys. Once you see each other in the handshake line, it’s back to being best friends.”
Guentzel adds a gold medal to his trophy case to go along with a Stanley Cup championship he won with the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins.
“They’re both unbelievably special,” he said. “It’s hard to point to one or the other, but when you get to do it for your country, especially against Canada in that kind of environment, that kind of game, and after the women did it before. We went there to go two-for-two with the men and women. We did that. That’s pretty cool for us to do that first time in history.”
To celebrate the gold, President Donald Trump invited the team to attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday. However, Guentzel did not make the trip.
“It was just kind of a timing thing for my family and me. I was definitely not denying the request to go,” Guentzel said. “It would’ve been a dream come true to go. I was fortunate to go in 2017 when Trump was in office. We’ve got games three in four (days). It’s going to be a tough schedule.”
The Lightning will play 27 games in the next 50 days, including Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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