Intentionally Obtuse: Team USA's first win in 50 years over Team Canada?

by Hawerchuk on Feb 22, 2010 2:18 AM EST Comment 0 comments

I heard this claim during the Sweden-Finland game just now. But this ignores the fact that there have been other international competitions - the Olympics, despite their modern importance, were not a serious tournament before 1998. So what has the American record been like in real top-level international competition?

Date	Winner	G	Loser	G	OT	Location	Tournament
5-Sep-76	Canada	4	USA	2		Montreal	Canada Cup
3-Sep-81	Canada	8	USA	3		Edmonton	Canada Cup
11-Sep-81	Canada	4	USA	1		Montreal	Canada Cup
3-Sep-84	Canada	4	USA	4		Montreal	Canada Cup
2-Sep-87	Canada	3	USA	2		Hamilton	Canada Cup
2-Sep-91	Canada	6	USA	3		Hamilton	Canada Cup
14-Sep-91	Canada	4	USA	1		Montreal	Canada Cup
16-Sep-91	Canada	4	USA	2		Hamilton	Canada Cup
31-Aug-96	USA	5	Canada	3		Philadelphia	World Cup
10-Sep-96	Canada	4	USA	3	OT	Philadelphia	World Cup
12-Sep-96	USA	5	Canada	2		Montreal	World Cup
14-Sep-96	USA	5	Canada	2		Montreal	World Cup
16-Feb-98	Canada	4	USA	1		Nagano	Olympics
24-Feb-02	Canada	5	USA	2		Salt Lake City	Olympics
31-Aug-04	Canada	2	USA	1		Montreal	World Cup
21-Feb-10	USA	5	Canada	3		Vancouver	Olympics

So while the US had a rough stretch from 1976 to 1991, their record against Canada over the last 14 years is 4-4, and they've outscored Canada 27-25. That's a lot more honest than including past Olympic results where Canadian semi-pro teams played US semi-pro teams just five times in almost 40 years:

1994	3-3
1992	DNP
1988	DNP
1984	4-2 Canada
1980	DNP
1976	DNP
1972	DNP
1968	3-2 Canada
1964	8-6 Canada
1960	2-1 USA

The US came into today's game as much as a 40/60 underdog and they won. That's like the New Orleans Saints beating the Minnesota Vikings to get to the Super Bowl. A great story, but nobody was offering 100-1 odds on the game.

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