‘Quintessential Canada’: Winnipeggers gather for gold-medal Olympic hockey game

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2026 (181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s just after 8:30 a.m. on Sunday and the bar on the corner of River Avenue and Osborne Street is standing room only, as the mass here acts in near unison, groaning and cheering and slapping their tables together, more like a living, breathing thing than a beverage room.

Kameron Mirza has been holding court at the bar top at this location of the Leopold’s Tavern chain since 5:30 a.m., well over an hour before the puck dropped for the gold-medal Olympic showdown between the Canadian and American men’s teams at 7:10 a.m. local time; he’s four shots of liquor and four beers in as he beckons strangers to order another with him, as the eyes of the dozens packed in the room stay fixed on the half-dozen television screens that play the game on CBC.

“I came here because this is where the party’s at, to represent Canada,” said 61-year-old Mirza, who was born in England but moved to Canada at age 12. “It’s good against evil.”

The bar shouts in unison as the Canadian boys move the puck closer to the net.

Nick Steiner, 29, clad in his Team Canada ball cap and jersey, arrived at 6:40 a.m. to get the last table at the bar to hold it for his pals Amit Manocha, also 29, and Liam Gravely, 32, who arrived shortly before puck drop.

“It’s just nice, given everything else going on right now, it’s nice to be in a bar with a bunch of other Canadians,” says Gravely.“It’s an opportunity for the country to watch itself. Everyone in the country is watching this game right now.”

Manocha, whose heart won’t stop racing as the nail-biting game continues, doesn’t think there’s anything more Canadian than getting up at 6:45 a.m. to head to a bar to watch the hockey with a coffee in one hand and a beer in the other.

“A beer and a Caesar,” interjects Steiner, who says a game like this isn’t something you watch at home on the couch alone.

“It’s huge,” he says. “The energy, just in here, has been unreal.”

The three bartenders make gin Caesars and screwdrivers with orange juice and vodka between pulling pints of beer and pouring steaming coffee into mugs, as the rising morning sun shines through the bar’s dusty windows.

“It’s good to be here for these moments — it’s not always about the game,” says Seamus Fogarty, 32, in a red toque and a red flannel shirt, only a few hours after he got home from revelling at Festival du Voyageur the night before. “These moments, you come together: Where were you?”

He commends Premier Wab Kinew for the Manitoba government allowing licensed establishments to open early Sunday morning to serve liquor — if they showed Team Canada’s quest for gold.

“You’ve got to take pride,” he says.

The patrons of the bar outstretch their arms together at the bad call from the referee; they groan collectively as it becomes clear the game is set to enter overtime, watching the play on a flat-screen TV on the wall, next to near-life-size poster of Terry Fox.

Laura Spikula, 36, is from Winnipeg but has been living in Australia for the past eight years; her trip back has been full of people commenting on the fact she can no longer handle the weather.

“You don’t pass up the opportunity to come have beers in the pub at 6 a.m.,” and watch the gold-medal game, she says.

“This is quintessential Canada.”

Rachel Hall, who’s stressed as overtime is set to begin, arrived at 6:30 a.m. to get their table.

“Within 10 minutes, it was packed,” she says, adding she’s hoping for a repeat of the 2010 Olympic men’s hockey final, when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in overtime in Canada’s “Golden Game.”

But soon, it’s over, and the bar falls silent, with only the TVs playing the cheers from the crowd in Milan, and the bar patrons stand, exhaling in steely defeat after Team USA scored one more to make it 2-1 and take the gold.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.