The beer was flowing in the Big Apple before most businesses even opened their doors.
New York City bars were jam-packed for the Sunday morning Olympic showdown between the US men’s hockey team and Team Canada — with local sports nuts hitting the bottle early.
“It’s a great way to spend a Sunday morning, as far as that goes,” said Connecticut hockey nut Sam Buchanan. “Moments like this, they only come around at a minimum once every four years, so it makes it easy to get up early on a Sunday to hang out with your friends and watch something great happen.”
Something great did happen — the US edged out Canada in overtime for a 2-1 victory to earn gold medals in men’s hockey for the first time in nearly a half century.
“This is better than the sex I had last night,” quipped Evan Decastro, who said he rescheduled a date with a girl so he could catch the real action.
“I was supposed to pick up some groceries in preparation of the 2 feet of snow, but who cares?” said native New Yorker Ken Greissman, part of the packed crowd at Blue Haven on Third Avenue.
“I know things aren’t great for everyone, but sports in the Olympics, it’s a beautiful unifying force for this county,” Greissman said. “It’s amazing to see everyone pull together and celebrate this amazing victory for our men’s team.”
The game got underway at the Milano Santaguila Arena in Milan, Italy, shortly after 8 a.m. New York time, culminating with the first US Olympic hockey gold medal for the men’s team since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” during the Lake Placid games in upstate New York.
The US women’s team earned the gold last week, also beating out Canada.
But on Sunday, it was all about the men’s team, who edged out the squad from the Great White North, which had to settle for a silver medal. Big Apple bargoers watched it all unfold on the screen.
“I got this table reservation two days ago,” photographer Kyle Smith said after the victory.
“As a New York sports fan, I haven’t had this much joy since the Giants won in 2011,” he said. “And I think this was the first moment in the last 15 years that we got to experience the euphoria and a championship and something to root for.”
Fellow fan Jack Doyle called the whole thing “awesome.”
“With something like this, with the opportunity to beat Canada like this, you had to come out, have a couple of beers and support it,” he said. “More beers, and then I’m telling everybody.”