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

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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