The U.S. Para hockey team exacted revenge, beating rival Canada 6-1 to reclaim the world title going into the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics.
“We weren’t quite as sharp at some points along the way, but I thought today, we were awfully dominating,” U.S. head coach David Hoff said of the tournament, according to World Para Ice Hockey. “As a coach, you worry about taking your foot off the pedal a little, but this group just didn’t.”
Jack Wallace had a hat trick, while Declan Farmer, Josh Pauls and Josh Misiewicz added goals in Saturday’s final in Buffalo.
Wallace, a defenseman who nearly made the 2024 Paralympic team in canoe, became the second American to score three goals in a Para hockey world final. Taylor Lipsett also did so in 2012.
Goalie Griffin LaMarre had 10 saves after previously serving as the backup to Jen Lee at past major championships.
The U.S., the four-time reigning Paralympic champion, earned its seventh world title in the last 10 editions. No nation has won five consecutive hockey titles at the Paralympics or Olympics.
Canada beat the U.S. for the world title in 2024, plus won the teams’ most recent meeting going into worlds.
Overall, the U.S. became the first nation to sweep the IIHF men’s, IIHF women’s and Para hockey world titles in one year.
“That’s the best game I’ve seen the United States play in a long time, and it’s just unfortunate that it came today against us,” Canada head coach Russ Herrington said, according to World Para Ice Hockey. “They didn’t give us any space to breathe, get our game going or impose our will at all. That’s a team that’s been sitting on a sour feeling for a year and two weeks and waiting for their chance to get us back, and that’s as determined and relentless as I’ve seen them play.”
