“After scoring those first two, the adrenaline really wiped me out, actually,” the 36-year-old Rafalski said. “Who expects to score two goals in the first period in a big game like that? I had to try to recover and get prepared for the second.”

Image United States players piling onto a helmetless Ryan Kesler after he scored into an empty net with 45 seconds left. His goal sealed the Americans’ first win over Canada at the Olympics since 1960. Credit... Kim Stallknecht for The New York Times

The other standout was goalie Ryan Miller, who turned aside 42 of Canada’s 45 shots.

“I knew they were going to bring pucks to the net,” said Miller, who withstood a barrage of shots to give the United States a chance to win. “I just tried to keep it really simple. If I start bouncing all over the ice, I’m not very efficient. So I had to trust that my guys were going to be around me and I could keep it more contained.”

It was a physical, high-speed game that lived up to its billing as part of Super Sunday, a tripleheader that pitted Russia against the Czech Republic, the United States and Canada and then Sweden versus Finland.

The victory was the third in three games for the Americans  they have the maximum 9 points  and earned them a bye into the quarterfinals Wednesday, where they will be the No. 1 seed and face the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus game. The victory against the Canadians, favorites coming into these Games, was a small measure of revenge for a loss to them in the 2002 Olympic final in Salt Lake City.