U.S. team: Gold-medal game with Canada 'final that we wanted'

The United States men's hockey team is relishing the opportunity to battle familiar foe Canada with the gold medal on the line.

"It's the final that we wanted and the team that we wanted to play," winger Matt Boldy said after Friday's semifinal victory over Slovakia, according to ESPN's David Purdum. "It's exciting for the fans and for hockey and everything like that."

The United States and Canada entered the tournament as the two favorites, and both finished first in their respective groups before seeing off their semifinal opponents Friday with varying degrees of ease.

Nathan MacKinnon was the hero for Canada, scoring a power-play goal with under 40 seconds left to cement a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against Finland. Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel tallied four goals on 23 shots to chase Slovakia netminder Samuel Hlavaj in the second frame of a one-sided 6-2 win.

Canada and the U.S. have enjoyed a storied hockey rivalry that was reconvened at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

Connor McDavid secured the overtime winner in the final for a 3-2 victory over the U.S. in the first best-on-best tournament featuring NHL players since the Sochi Olympics in 2014. A preliminary round game between the two teams included three fights in the opening nine seconds.

"Now that it's all set in stone, everything happens for a reason," forward Brady Tkachuk, who spearheaded one of the 4 Nations brawls, told reporters Friday. "We'll be looking forward to this one. You guys have been talking about it for a while. Now, you get to enjoy it."

Canada and the U.S. will now meet in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. Canada owns a 2-0 record against the U.S. in gold-medal games, which came in 2002 and 2010.

"It's the matchup everyone wanted," Zach Werenski said after his three-assist showing versus Slovakia. "Now that it's finally here, we can kind of shift our focus to Canada."

The men's Olympic hockey gold-medal game is scheduled for Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET.