MILAN — This is what everyone came to Italy to see, the Rematch of the century with gold medals on the line.

Team USA and Canada were both challenged plenty along the way, including Friday when the latter needed a two-goal comeback and late Nathan MacKinnon winner to get past Finland.

But here they are, the world’s two preeminent hockey powers, one year removed from a pair of epics at 4 Nations, ready for Part III in Milan on Sunday.

“It’s what every American and Canadian grows up watching,” Matthew Tkachuk said after Team USA overpowered Slovakia 6-2 to earn a berth in the gold medal game at the Olympics. “This is the pinnacle of the sport. This is as good as it gets. A rivalry that it’s good as it gets.

“So there will not be one TV without this game on in the United States and in Canada. And that should get you pretty fired up.”

It is the most anticipated hockey game in a generation, maybe longer, and the Americans are one win away from joining the Miracle Boys of Lake Placid as hockey royalty.

They will get the chance to do so 46 years exactly after the Miracle on Ice.

“It’s not something a lot of American hockey players have ever done,” Zach Werenski said. “I think 36 players have ever worn a gold medal for the U.S. in the Olympics? We’re aware of what’s at stake but we’re gonna embrace it, gonna enjoy it. This is why we play the game.”

In a tournament whose knockout stage has been packed with tight games, Friday night was a rare bird: something straightforward.

The U.S. led 2-0 after one, 5-0 after two, and the rest was academic. 

“Without a doubt, it’s the best that we’ve played,” coach Mike Sullivan said.

Jack Eichel called the team an “unfinished product” during the preliminary round.

They look pretty close to finished now, just in time for a final that will demand their absolute best.

“This group, we believe it’s the best group in the tournament,” Jack Hughes said. “Best group in the whole world. We’re really proud Americans.”

The only bad news of the night for Team USA was that Tage Thompson — who keyed the third line that dominated for the Americans on Friday along with Jack Hughes and Dylan Larkin — left the game for what Team USA called “precautionary reasons” and did not play in the third period.

 Sullivan said he anticipates Thompson being ready for Sunday’s game.

That does not quite match the urgency of injuries on Canada’s side, to captain Sidney Crosby and to defenseman Josh Morrissey, both of whom missed Friday’s semifinal, though coach Jon Cooper has refused to rule either out for the tournament’s duration.

There will not be three fights in nine seconds Sunday, not with IIHF rules that prohibit dropping gloves.

But the twin matchups a year ago in Montreal and Boston, the first won by the Americans, the second by the Canadians, will be all the talk between now and then.

The potential rematch has been all the talk for the last year.

Now it’s here.

“I’ve thought about it so much the last year, and since the 4 Nations final,” Larkin said. “Not even gonna really go into how much I’ve thought about it as a kid, but that was just a dream. Last year after 4 Nations, turned into serious thoughts. And I think it’s what everyone wanted, is this matchup in a gold medal game.”

Team USA has Olympic golds in 1960 and 1980, neither of which were best-on-best competition.

It has the 1996 World Cup, which it failed to defend two years later in Nagano.

And it has a scrap heap of dreams that died on the vine against Canada: 2002 in Salt Lake, 2010 on Sidney Crosby’s stick, 2025 on Connor McDavid’s.

This one can’t end the same way.

“I think chills, honestly,” Larkin said of what a win could do for the sport in the United States. “We don’t even realize the impact it could have.”

“Storybook,” Brady Tkachuk called it.

History awaits.

“It’s gonna take that one shot,” Larkin said. “It’s gonna take that one performance and that one guy to step up and have the game of his life.

“I say that, but also trust in your teammates and trust in what our D corps can do and use their legs and bottle things up. Connor Hellebuyck between the pipes. While I say that, they have some pretty good players over there.

“It’s gonna be a battle of the ages.”