section_path: Abstract
section_name: Abstract
paragraph_text: The United States men's national ice hockey team represents the United States in men's international ice hockey. The team is controlled by USA Hockey, the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States. The U.S. team is currently ranked 6th in the IIHF World Rankings.
  
  The U.S. won gold medals at the 1960 and the 1980 Olympics and more recently, silver medals at the 2002 and 2010 Olympics. The U.S. also won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, defeating Canada in the finals. The team's most recent medal at the World Championships came in with a historic gold in 2025, their first victory in the tournament since 1960 and third overall (also in 1933). Unlike other nations, the U.S. did not typically use its best NHL players in the World Championships. Instead, it provided the younger players with an opportunity to gain international experience, although they changed the approach by the 2020s. Overall, the team has collected eleven Olympic medals (two of them gold), 21 World Championship medals (three of them gold, including 1960), and it reached the semi-final round of the Canada Cup/World Cup five times, twice advancing to the finals and winning gold once. Until 2025, the U.S. has never reached a World Championship gold medal game, having lost in the semi-final round twelve times since the IIHF introduced a playoff system in 1992; this includes six semi-finals appearances in ten tournaments from 2013 through 2023, and three consecutive in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
  
  The U.S. is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, and Sweden.