Milan (Italy) (AFP) – Canada set up a potential showdown with the United States in the men’s ice hockey final at the Winter Olympics after snatching a late 3-2 victory over Finland on Friday. Nathan MacKinnon’s power play goal with just 36 seconds remaining, after Finnish defenseman Niko Mikkola had been sin-binned for high-sticking, completed a thrilling comeback from two goals down for tournament favourites Canada at the Santagiulia Arena in Milan.
The USA are heavy favourites to beat Slovakia in the other last-four clash later on Friday and book a date with their North American neighbours on Sunday. “It’s everything. It’s the gold medal at an Olympic Games. We are very lucky to be here and it’s a great opportunity. We have got to be ready,” MacKinnon said. Eyeing their record 10th Olympic title and the first since Sochi 2014, Canada outshot Finland 39-17, but it was outgoing Olympic champions Finland who were more efficient early in the game.
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Mikko Rantanen gave the Finns the lead on 17 minutes with a wrist shot on a power play, just after Sebastian Aho had won a faceoff. Eric Haula made it 2-0 on 24 minutes with a shorthanded goal and a neat backhand finish on a break. That was a wake-up call for Canada and Sam Reinhart brought them within a goal with just under six minutes remaining in the second period, tipping in Cale Makar’s shot on a power play.
Defenseman Shea Theodore made it 2-2 at 50:34 with a slapshot after Brad Marchand had thrown Saros off with a tackle as Canada kept pushing. “We had a lot of good opportunities, a lot of good battles to get the puck back,” said MacKinnon. “They were a little tired and in the second (period) we took over the game.”
Haula said the loss would “hurt for a bit and it should hurt”, as the Finns, who won their first-ever Olympic title at Beijing 2022, face a bronze-medal game on Saturday. “They were down two goals, they had to ramp it up and they put us on our heels…we talked about it, that we need to keep attacking, that we can’t just defend, defend. They’re too skilled, too good.”
Connor McDavid had two assists, taking his tournament-leading points tally to 2+11. McDavid replaced Sidney Crosby as the Canada captain after the Pittsburgh Penguins star was ruled out with an injury he had picked up in the quarter-final against the Czech Republic. Both Canada and Finland have rosters packed with players from the National Hockey League (NHL), who are competing at the Olympic Games for the first time since 2014.
© 2024 AFP
