Team USA beat Canada 2-1 to claim Olympic gold in men's hockey for the first time since 1980, and President Donald Trump picked up the phone to tell them what the rest of the country was already feeling.

Coach Mike Sullivan confirmed the call, saying Trump addressed the entire group after the victory, the NY Post reported.

"He just spoke to the group expressing how proud he was of the group and congratulating everybody on the win."

Captain Auston Matthews kept it simple.

"This is a huge moment for us. A huge moment for the United States. He called, just congratulated us."

The call wasn't a surprise. Trump reached out to Team USA before last year's 4 Nations final as well, a game the Americans lost to Canada. This time, the result matched the moment.

A country that showed up at 8 AM

Sullivan painted a picture that said more about the country than the game itself. He described an outpouring of messages about early-morning watch parties across the nation, Americans setting alarms and gathering in living rooms to watch their team play in Milan.

"Obviously this game in a lot of ways was an inspiration to our country. I can't tell you how many texts I've received over the last day or so about watch parties at 8 in the morning. I think from a viewership standpoint in the United States, there were a lot of people paying attention, the president included."

There's something worth pausing on here. Americans voluntarily woke up early on a Sunday to watch hockey. Not the Super Bowl. Not March Madness. Hockey. The sport that cable networks have treated as an afterthought for decades suddenly had the country riveted, because the stakes were real and the jersey said USA.

That's what international competition does when it's played straight. No messaging campaigns. No social justice slogans stitched into the uniforms. Just Americans competing against the best in the world and winning. People respond to that. They always have.

The Canada dynamic

The backdrop of this gold medal game carried a layer that most Olympic matchups don't. Tensions between the U.S. and Canada have simmered in recent months, with references to White House talk of annexing Canada as the 51st state creating friction that spilled into the sporting arena. The "Star Spangled Banner" was loudly booed in Montreal before both of Team USA's games at the Bell Centre.

Those tensions have reportedly calmed for the time being. But the booing told its own story, and Team USA answered on the ice in the only language that matters in competition: the scoreboard.

Matthews, for his part, didn't take the bait on geopolitics. He kept the focus where it belonged.

"It's an honor to wear this jersey and to represent the U.S. To go home with a gold medal. You know how much that means to guys in this room, to people watching and rooting us on too."

That's the right note. Pride without posturing. Confidence without controversy. The kind of patriotism that doesn't need a press release.

What comes next

Rumors had circulated that Trump might fly to Italy to attend the final on Sunday, but the timing didn't work. His State of the Union address on Tuesday made the trip impractical. The phone call served the same purpose: the President of the United States telling a group of athletes that their country noticed and their country was proud.

As for a potential White House visit, Matthews acknowledged the possibility without committing to anything, citing the logistics of getting home with a blizzard on the East Coast and the NHL resuming play Thursday.

"I think there's a lot of moving parts as far as our travels back home. We'll see what happens."

The practical reality is that these players have day jobs. They'll scatter back to their NHL teams within days, and the gold medals will go into cases, and the moment will settle into memory. But what happened in Milan matters beyond the trophy.

Why this resonates

The last time American men won Olympic hockey gold was 1980. That team beat the Soviet Union during the Cold War and became shorthand for what happens when scrappy Americans refuse to know their place. Forty-six years is a long drought. The comparison to the Miracle on Ice will be inevitable and, in some ways, unfair to both teams. They were different squads in different eras facing different opponents.

But the thread connecting them is the same one Sullivan described in those early-morning watch parties. Americans love their country, and they love watching their country win. That instinct doesn't need to be manufactured or marketed. It just needs a stage.

On Sunday in Milan, Team USA built one. And the President called to say what millions of Americans were already saying to each other: well done.