Milan (Italy) (AFP) – Mitch Marner scored in overtime as Canada saw off the Czech Republic 4-3 on Wednesday to advance to the Olympic men’s ice hockey semi-finals. The other favourites for the title, the United States, face Sweden in their quarter-final later on Wednesday. Both Canada and the USA have rosters packed with players from the NHL, who are competing at an Olympics for the first time since 2014.
Canada had cruised through the preliminary round and handed the Czechs a 5–0 defeat just six days ago. But the Czechs, the 2024 world champions, provided a very different kind of resistance this time, taking the lead twice until Marner netted the crucial goal. “(It was) adrenaline: trust in your skill that you work on so hard,” said Marner. “You just trust yourself to make a play there, and I was lucky enough to score.”
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Macklin Celebrini put Canada ahead within four minutes, before Lukas Sedlak levelled four minutes later. The Czech Republic pulled ahead thanks to David Pastrnak’s first goal of the tournament after a quarter of an hour. The Canadians raised their game in the second period, outshooting their opponents 17 to 5. But they lacked precision in the final touch, and only a blatant foul by Michal Kempny opened up the space for Nathan MacKinnon to make it 2–2.
Canada lost captain Sidney Crosby, a two-time Olympic champion in 2010 and 2014, who hurt his leg and did not return to the game. The Czechs gradually tilted the balance back in the final period and regained the lead 3-2, with a blistering counter finished off by Ondrej Palat. The Canadian reply came with a long-range shot from Nick Suzuki before Marner delivered the winner. “Somebody told me once we’re in the entertainment business. If you don’t find that entertaining, I don’t know what makes your heart go,” said Cooper. “Everybody had faith. It was quite calm out there, and it paid off.”
Defending champions Finland also scraped through to the final four by beating Switzerland 3-2 in overtime, while Slovakia thrashed Germany 6-2. Artturi Lehkonen was the hero for Finland, who had trailed by two goals, as he scored the overtime winner in the three-on-three extra period. The Slovaks, bronze medallists four years ago, dominated at the end of the first period with Pavol Regenda scoring after 19 minutes. The rest of the game was a Slovak demonstration of skill, with Milos Kelemen and Oliver Okuliar scoring two quick-fire goals before Dalibor Dvorsky grabbed a fourth just after half an hour.
Germany’s 2020 National Hockey League (NHL) MVP Leon Draisaitl set up Lukas Reichel to keep their hopes alive after 35 minutes, but that was quickly extinguished at the start of the final period by Regenda’s second goal. To round things off, Tomas Tatar responded to Frederik Tiffels’s power-play score after 50 minutes with a goal of his own.
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