MILAN, Feb 21 (Reuters) - NHL alliances will be ripped apart in relentless pursuit of Olympic gold - for three periods, at least - as Canada and the United States face off in a dream championship game for National Hockey League fans on Sunday.
Nearly 150 players from the NHL came to compete in Milan, with the top-flight league participating in the Games for the first time since 2014, and 50 remain in the hunt for gold as one of the Winter Games' great rivalries is renewed.
"It makes it harder," said Canada forward Sam Reinhart, whose Florida Panthers teammate Matthew Tkachuk is an alternate captain with the United States. "You know how competitive they are, you know how nice it is to have them on your team when the games get the tightest."
All 32 NHL teams were represented on the four semi-final rosters, which included Finland and Slovakia, in the kind of showcase that the league hoped for when it announced two years ago that it would permit its players to compete in Milan.
For the NHL's top goal-scorer Nathan MacKinnon, putting professional allegiances on ice has been easy in Milan.
"You have new teammates right now," said the Canadian forward, who will be on the other side of the ice from his Colorado Avalanche teammate Brock Nelson on Sunday.
"New teammates, new brothers, in this short amount of time we've become really close."
The NHL rode into the Milano Cortina Games on a high, with average viewership on ESPN and ABC up 39% year-over-year through the first four months of the season, buoyed by bankable stars and the TV and pop-culture hockey sensation "Heated Rivalry."
The men's tournament had not even begun when the IOC signalled its hope that players from the elite North American league would become a feature of future editions.
The final between the two great rivals - which many oddsmakers and armchair experts alike predicted - can only kick the enthusiasm to another level, as the United States seek their third gold and Canada chase their 10th in the men's tournament.
"We're all competitors and we want to win," said U.S. forward Jack Eichel, who will see his Vegas Golden Knights teammates Mitch Marner, Mark Stone and Shea Theodore on the Canada bench. "We can go back to being teammates after the game."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery and Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
