MILAN, Italy — Dylan Larkin has been thinking about the United States facing Canada for gold at the Olympics for a year. All the dreams he had as a kid crystalized after he and his teammates lost to their rival in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off.

MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 20: Jack Eichel #9 of Team United States celebrates after scoring a goal in the second period during the Men’s Semifinals Playoff match between the United States and Slovakia on day fourteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 20, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

“I’ve thought about it so much,” Larkin said. “It’s what everyone wanted, this matchup in a gold-medal game. Yeah, I’ve thought about it a lot.”

Those thoughts become reality Sunday when the North American countries that have become the pre-eminent global hockey powerhouses face off in a titanic final of a best-vs.-best tournament with many of the NHL’s biggest stars. The U.S. against Canada on the biggest stage in sports should be hard-hitting, quick-skating, must-see entertainment.

“It’s gonna be a big-boy game,” Canada’s Tom Wilson said. “It’s going to be as fast and physical and skilled as you can ever imagine. Right now it’s the two big countries for hockey in the world. Every single guy is going to be doing everything they can at every single moment.”

Canada and the U.S. entered the tournament as the favorites and played like it. Each team went undefeated, winning all five games, with the U.S. outscoring opponents 24-8 and outshooting them 201-124 and Canada 27-8 and 202-106.

“It’s two of probably the best teams ever, maybe,” U.S. winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for the players over there and what they’ve done in the past, and we want to be the team that comes out on top.”

There were some scares and nervous moments along the way: Canada needed late tying goals to get past Czechia in overtime in the quarterfinals and Finland in the semifinals, while the U.S. also gave up the lead late against Sweden before winning in OT.

Unlike the preliminary round, the U.S. and Canada have each been tested facing elimination.

“It hasn’t been the smoothest quarters and semis for us,” said Canada’s Connor McDavid, the leading scorer at the Olympics with an NHL player-record 13 points. “But I think that adversity is good. Going through that has brought us closer. You can definitely feel that in the group, it’s been been fun to play in those games.”

In the last two Olympics the NHL participated in, Canada took home gold. In 2014, the team never trailed. In 2010, Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to defeat the U.S. and win on home ice.

Canada has won three of the five Games with NHL players to give it a record nine gold medals. Hockey was born in Canada, and the expectation is always to be the best in the world at it.

“You always feel that responsibility as a Canadian,” Wilson said. “We want to be the best. It’s been our game for a long time. The guys that are pulling the jersey on, it’s our responsibility to go out there and try and prove why we’re the best and why we should be the best. And continue to be the best.”

Arguably the best Canadian Olympian in history, Crosby, may not play because of an injury that knocked him out of the quarterfinals. Coach Jon Cooper did not show his hand over whether Crosby will be available.

“Obviously we’d love to have him,” Cooper said.

The last American men’s hockey gold medal at the Olympics was 46 years ago in Lake Placid, N.Y. The 1980 team of college players pulled off the “Miracle on Ice,” beating the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to authoring one of the most talked-about underdog stories in sports history.

None of the players on this U.S. team were alive to see it; coach Mike Sullivan was about to turn 12. The reverence for that team remains as the current generation of players seek to join the likes of Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig in U.S. hockey lore.

“It’s unbelievable,” said forward Brock Nelson, whose uncle Dave Christian was on the 1980 team. “It’s exciting. The adrenaline, the chills, everything. This is kind of what you dream about as a kid and why you want to play the game.”

Eruzione captained the U.S. in 1980 and visited with players at the 4 Nations last year in Montreal. Auston Matthews, the U.S. team captain, said Eruzione’s best advice was, “Just leave it all out there.”

“This is what you play for,” Matthews said. “This is what you came here for: to have this opportunity and put ourselves in this position. We just got to go out there and leave it all on the ice.”

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FORT MYERS, Fla. —  A new season always brings a renewed sense of hope and promise. Perhaps no one is more ready for that fresh start, to put 2025 well behind him, than Bailey Ober.

Ober hurt his hip during spring training last year. He got clobbered in his first start of the season, yielding eight runs in 2 2/3 innings. He was mostly effective pitching through the injury in the early months of the season, even with diminished velocity. Then came June, a frustrating month during which Ober allowed 30 runs in 30 innings pitched and gave up 14 home runs, after which he decided it was time for a break to let his hip heal over the next month.

As he entered the offseason, Ober put all his attention into getting healthy and cleaning up his mechanics. He is pleased with the results.

“(I’m) physically feeling good,” he said. “I’m feeling faster, stronger. Now, it’s just time to go out there and do it.”

Ober split his time between his home in North Carolina and Sarasota, working with his trainer, before coming down to Fort Myers a couple of weeks before camp began. The focus of his work was undoing bad habits he had created last season as his body compensated while he tried to pitch through injury.

“A lot of that is like structure, position on the mound, not necessarily letting my chest collapse in front of me and staying tall, using my length and my advantages that I have naturally,” he said.

In retrospect, he admits, he could have done things differently last season. Perhaps he should have shut things down earlier to let his body heal.

“You kind of pick on up on stuff and you have more awareness of how you would like to approach things, how you would like to handle different situations,” Ober said. “That’s definitely an aspect I learned a little bit more of last year on the not so good side that I didn’t want to go through.”

With an offseason of work behind him, the Twins are counting on Ober to be an important member of their rotation again.

A return to form for Ober has become even more important in recent days with the Twins losing Pablo López for the season. The Twins have a number of starters in camp vying for a rotation spot and with López now headed for a year of rehab, Ober expects himself and Joe Ryan to step into even more of a leadership role within the rotation.

But perhaps most important, the Twins are simply looking for Ober to get back to who he was in past years: a pillar of consistency. And last season’s results have given him extra incentive to do just that.

“It’s always in the back of your mind and adds a little bit of a chip on your shoulder when all you’re doing is workouts,” he said. “Obviously you don’t want to repeat last year. It’s in the back of your mind, but I’m not dwelling too much on it. It’s a little bit of extra motivation to get back to knowing what I can do.”

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Team Peterson’s quest for the first U.S. women’s curling medal ended just short on Saturday as the Americans dropped the bronze medal game to Canada, 11-7, in Cortina D’Ampezza Italy.

A two-point hammer throw in the ninth by skip Tabitha Peterson kept U.S. hopes alive, but Canada put immediate pressure on the Americans in the 10th, curling through and around U.S. guards to put as many as five stones in the house.

Needing a perfect throw on her final shot — which she had done several times in these Milan Cortina Games — Peterson’s shot glanced off a blocker placed by Canada skip Rachel Homan and out of play.

It was a crushing end for Team Peterson, which had a successful round-robin, finishing 6-3 and advancing to the semifinals after beating Switzerland in their final pool play game.

The Swiss, however, won the rematch, and Team Canada — which lost to the U.S. for the first time in round-robin play — had the Americans chasing after the U.S. went up 3-2 in the fifth end.

Team Peterson, which finished sixth at the Beijing Games in 2022, advanced to the semifinals for the first time, and second time for a U.S. team since 2002. The Americans had to settle for fourth place, tying that team for Team USA’s best finish at the Olympics.

Canada took control with a three-point hammer throw to erase a 3-2 deficit to end the sixth end. Peterson, who was terrific in Cortina, threw a two-point hammer to tie the score 5-5 in the seventh.

But a terrific throw by third Tracy Fleury in the eighth knocked three U.S. stones cleanly out of the circle. Cory Thiesse knocked one out, but Homan used the final throw to put one back in the house for an 8-5 lead.

Again, Peterson made a perfect hammer throw to salvage two points in the ninth and make it 8-7 and give the U.S. a chance to win or send the game to an extra frame in the 10th. But Canada peeled off three U.S. guards and filled up the circle, putting the Americans on their back foot, and they never recovered.

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By JESSICA DAMIANO

Seed-starting time is right around the corner, and that means it’s time to think about tomatoes.

I can think of no better summer meal than a thick slice of a homegrown Oxheart between two slices of white bread, adorned only with salt, pepper and maybe a couple of basil leaves.

I’m also partial to Beefsteak, Porterhouse, Brandywine, Big Zac and Big Boy, all delicious — and all red, the way many of us have been conditioned to believe tomatoes should be. But there’s a whole kaleidoscope of tomatoes you can grow in your garden.

So this year, as you’re dog-earring catalog pages and dreaming of July, look past the usual suspects. One of these oddballs just might be the tomato you love the most.

Cherokee Purple

It was the first other-colored tomato I grew. I didn’t particularly find the heirloom’s grayish-brown skin or matching flesh appetizing, and my 8-foot-tall (2.5-meter-tall) indeterminate plant didn’t produce as prolifically as most other varieties I’d grown. But its sweet, earthy and somewhat smoky flavor and juicy consistency made for a delicious sandwich.

Black Krim

A Black Krim tomato is displayed in East Carbon, Utah on Nov. 6, 2025. (Dale Thurber/Delectation of Tomatoes via AP)

This old, indeterminate Crimean heirloom introduced to North American home gardeners in 1990 is slightly easier on the eyes. Its sweet, salty, tangy flavor intensifies when allowed to ripen fully on the vine, so resist the urge to harvest prematurely. And if its unusual reddish-gray color turns you off, take a bite and you’ll get over it.

Black Beauty

A Black Beauty tomato is displayed in East Carbon, Utah on Aug. 11, 2021. (Dale Thurber/Delectation of Tomatoes via AP)

A few steps up on the aesthetics trellis, Black Beauty lives up to its name. With skin the color of blackberries and deep red, meaty flesh, it’s considered the darkest tomato in the world and has the antioxidant content to prove it. Although it’s a hybrid variety, Black Beauty has been stabilized through selective breeding, so its seeds will grow true to type. And it makes an impressive Caprese salad.

Ananas Noire

Also known by its English translation of Black Pineapple, this tomato variety is the happiest-looking of the bunch. Almost tie-dyed in appearance, the green, red and yellow tricolored hybrid popped up naturally in 1990s Belgium when a pineapple tomato crossed with a black tomato growing nearby. Developed further and stabilized by the Belgian horticulturist Pascal Moreau, and made available to home gardeners in 2005, the indeterminate plants are heavy producers of sweet, juicy, citrusy fruits.

Yellow Pear

Three ripe Yellow Pear tomatoes appear on a vine in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, 2020. (Ian Atkins/Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello via AP)

This indeterminate heirloom plant produces an abundance of small, vibrant yellow, pear-shaped fruits. According to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, which collects and sells historic seeds, the indeterminate plant dates at least to the early 1600s. Early Americans are said to have preserved and pickled its fruit later on. We can still do that, of course, as well as eat them out of hand or use them in salads.

A display of harvested Yellow Pear tomatoes appear in Charlottesville, Va., on July 20, 2021. (Ian Atkins/Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello via AP)

Voyager

A voyager tomato grows on a vine on Long Island, N.Y. on Sept. 27, 2023. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Voyager tomatoes are true weirdos. The heirloom variety is said to have gotten its name because its fruits are comprised of individual segments that can be pulled apart without disturbing the others, making for good travel snacks. They also reveal an interesting shape when sliced horizontally through the whole fruit. In my garden, Voyagers were quick to ripen. And in my kitchen, they were tangy — enjoyed with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt and pepper.

A voyager tomato grows on a vine on Long Island, N.Y. on Sept. 27, 2023. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Green Zebra

A sliced-open Green Zebra tomato is displayed in East Carbon, Utah on Sept. 29, 2021. (Dale Thurber/Delectation of Tomatoes via AP)

This green-and-yellow striped tomato variety has bright green interior flesh and a sweet, tangy flavor. Its cultivation spanned four decades, as Everett, Washington, plant breeder Tom Wagner worked to cross several heirloom varieties to create a tomato that would remain green when ripe. The indeterminate plants, made available in 1983, produce crack-resistant fruit with exceptional heat and drought tolerance.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.