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PHOTOS BY Getty Images Hart Memorial Trophy winner coming off a 115-point season in 1995-96. What would he do against the Flyers' phenom if the U.S. and Canada were tied 2-2 in the final two minutes of a game? Wilson knew what the Canadians would do. Now, he was trying to get that same extra effort out of the Americans. "All those guys that he posed the question to, every- body in the room had to be thinking about what they would do, even [if ] they didn't have a teammate that was playing on Canada's team," Emrick said. "They had to at least consider the hypothetical question. It was just a collection of brilliant things." Given Wilson's message, Keith Tkachuk chatted with Bill Guerin about picking a time to start a fight. They didn't set a concrete plan entering the opener against Canada in Philadelphia. But something struck Tkachuk just 20 seconds into the game and he dropped the gloves against Claude Lemieux. At the same time, Guerin fought Keith Primeau, but that was the undercard to Tkachuk-Lemieux. The scrap took place right in front of the benches and sent a message to both teams that the U.S. wasn't going to sit in the back of the bus this time. "Billy and I talked about it and we were just like, 'All right, somebody's fighting. Don't fight at the same time.'" Tkachuk said. "But that backfired on us. It was great. The people loved it. The fans loved it. I mean, it got both teams jacked up and from there, I think we just took off." The move didn't work initially, as Canada took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. But the second period was a different story as Doug Weight and Scott Young scored to put the U.S. up 3-2. Brett Hull then scored a power-play goal 25 seconds into the third for a 4-2 lead. The Americans won 5-3, which earned them a bye into the semifinals. Following a 5-2 win over Russia and a 9-3 win against Slovakia, the U.S. defeated Russia in the semi- finals to set up the best-of-three final series against Canada. The format had the first game back in Philadelphia, then the last two games in Montreal. In Game 1, Theo Fleury scored midway through the third to put Canada ahead 2-1 before LeClair scored a "There were no egos. Everybody got along. We had so much fun off the ice, not just on the ice. And I think that brought us together." — K E I T H T K A C H U K PHOTOS BY Getty Images 50 // OCTOBER 2026 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM 1996 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY DIGITAL BONUS CONTENT