Team USA’s men’s hockey team defeated Canada 2–1 in overtime on Sunday, February 22, securing the country’s first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980. Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal 1:41 into overtime, while goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves.
As for the postgame celebration? It didn’t stay on the ice in Italy. It went way, way farther south — all the way to Miami.
On Monday, February 23, the newly crowned Olympic champions touched down at Miami International Airport after their charter was rerouted from New York due to winter storms, as reported by NBC Miami.
"It's been a whirlwind, it's been amazing," Team USA forward Matthew Tkachuk told reporters on the tarmac. "It was such an amazing way to unite the country. We felt the support being across the Atlantic and now being back on home soil we could feel it the second the wheels hit the ground."
Before the real party began, the winners sat down for a team dinner at Michelin-starred COTE Miami, where PageSix reported they toasted their gold over Petrossian caviar, filet mignon, and champagne. Then, about an hour before midnight, the group “stormed the red carpet” at E11EVEN Miami — the world-renowned 24/7 ultraclub recently ranked the No. 1 nightclub in the United States.
What followed was exactly the kind of night you'd expect from a team that had just ended a 46-year gold medal drought. According to a source, the players went through more than $150,000 in champagne, much of which was “sprayed into the crowd” and poured directly into fans' mouths.
Tkachuk, 28 — no stranger to celebrating championships at E11EVEN after the Florida Panthers' back-to-back Stanley Cup victories — grabbed the mic early in the night and led the room in Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” according to Sporting News.
He also showed Hellebuyck, 32, some love, calling him "the savior and secretary of defense."