The USA Hockey Brotherhood carried Johnny Hockey all the way to gold

There will be two iconic images of the celebration after Team USA’s overtime gold medal victory Sunday in hockey. In one, the man who scored the golden goal, Jack Hughes, smiles into the stands, front teeth gritted, fist raised in celebration, a flag draped over his shoulders – the picture of grit and glory.

But elsewhere on the ice, at that moment, two of his teammates were planning the second iconic shot. After the Star-Spangled Banner sounded, the team gathered for a shot at center ice. Zach Werenski and Dylan Larkin skated toward the stands and gestured to the family of their fallen former teammate, Johnny Gaudreau. Each man lifted a dark-haired toddler over the rails and onto the ice. They folded Gaudreau’s children, 3-year-old Noa and 2-year-old Johnny Jr., into the team photo as Gaudreau’s widow, Meredith, and his parents watched from the stands.

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Sunday’s hard-fought victory against rival Canada felt fateful in many ways. It was played on George Washington’s 250th birthday. It was a year after the USA lost to Canada in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off, creating an Olympic grudge match for the ages. It also happened to be the 46th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the last time American men won hockey gold, at the Lake Placid Olympic Games. And for many in the arena, it was played for Johnny, whose family had been enveloped in just this way by the “hockey fraternity,” as Hughes called it in a postgame interview, since his tragic death in 2024.

On August 29, 2024, Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were on a bike ride in New Jersey when life took a terrible turn. The Columbus Blue Jackets phenom known as “Johnny Hockey” was in town with family for his sister’s wedding when an allegedly drunk driver tried to pass a slower car and hit the Gaudreau brothers, 31 and 29, who were driving on the right side of the road. Johnny and Matthew died at the scene, leaving behind two wives, two sisters, two parents and Johnny’s two young children. The driver faces trial this month in New Jersey.

At the memorial service for the brothers, we learned that life had taken another turn before their deaths. Meredith Gaudreau, Johnny’s wife, announced that she was pregnant with their third child, “a total surprise.”

Team USA Johnny Gaudreau’s children pose for a group photo during the men’s gold medal game between Canada and the United States on day sixteen of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the Milan Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images)

“John and I had the best six months as a family of four. These will forever be the best six months of my life,” she said at the memorial service. “There is one week in particular that I will cherish forever – it will be my favorite week of my life out of these six months. We are actually a family of five. I am in my ninth week of pregnancy with our third baby.”

Madeline Gaudreau, Matthew’s wife, was pregnant with their first child.

Since then, Carter Michael Gaudreau, Johnny’s son, and Tripp Matthew Gaudreau, Matthew’s son, have been added to the family list. The family marvels at how much they resemble their fathers, so much so that their mother Jane told the AP last year that it felt a little like God had given them “John and Matty back.”

Add to the list of survivors of the Gaudreau brothers, two children they will never meet. But when the brothers couldn’t be there for them, the brotherhood was.

Johnny Hockey was a star, a decorated collegiate player at Boston College before turning pro with the Calgary Flames in 2014, scoring the only goal of the night in the very first game of his career CHECK. He represented the USA on several World Cup teams and would have been on the 2025 4 Nations team and the 2026 Olympic team had his life not been cut short.

USA Hockey did not forget him. Instead, they carried Johnny with them wherever they played. Gaudreau had a locker at the 4 Nations Face-Off, his jersey hanging inside. Before the final game of 2025 — a 3-2 overtime loss to Team USA — Mike Eruzione, from the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal team, wore Gaudreau’s jersey as honorary captain.

There have been 5Ks to raise money for their childhood school, which needed a new playground, tributes to NHL games in both Canada and America to the tune of “Johnny Hockey.” Their father Guy remained involved with the national team and with the Blue Jackets, who donned Johnny’s signature jeans, boots and Avalon Surf Shop hoodie for one of their games this year. Those same teammates insisted that Jane come on the annual Blue Jacket Mom bonding trip in 2025.

But the road has not been easy. Their sister Katie postponed her wedding 10 months after the day that changed their lives, when her mother urged her not to let the man who took her brothers take another important thing from their family. When it came time for the Olympics, Katie volunteered and encouraged her parents to go to Milan.

“Our two daughters, for 24 hours, they just kept at us: ‘You have to go. The boys wanted you to do this. It would mean so much to John,'” Jane told Newsweek. “It just means so much to our family and we’re so happy to remember what our boys meant to hockey.”

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We talk a lot these days about what masculinity means. The discourse turns into caricatures of low-T latte drinkers vs. looksmaxxing trad chads. But Team USA shows a model that has always existed between the poles – raw men who enjoy getting up at 4 in cold temps to get stronger, who will happily throw haymakers for their country and friends, who are uncomplicated in their pride for Team USA. That those men can also be the ones who protect widows and comfort children isn’t a surprise if you’ve met real men who were raised well (in this case, by the tough, loving hockey moms and dads in the stands).

USA’s Matthew Tkachuk (19) carries Noa Gaudreau after a men’s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

These men are also unabashed in their love for the achievements of the women around them. Hughes said one of the first things he thought about after putting his winner into the back of the net was his U.S. women’s team counterpart, Megan Keller, who did the same in her gold medal match. He had congratulated her in the cafeteria the day before his big moment came. Megan’s teammate, Haley Winn, was fiercely supported by her three older brothers, who became viral stars wearing Screaming-Eagle masks, matching Stars-and-Stripes ensembles and deploying light beers from their frat-tactical utility belts. These ‘Merica-maxxing men’ also left their little sister a heart-melting voicemail, declaring her their hero now that she’d reached the goal they’d seen her work towards since she was skating before she could walk.

Out on the ice after the gold medal ceremony, the brothers reunited and showed the mix of toughness and tenderness that the world really needs to keep living well, even after life kicks in.

“We think about him, we played for him and we tried to make him proud,” Werenski said of Gaudreau. “It was an incredible moment to have his kids on the ice, and that one was for him.”

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