Men's Olympic Ice Hockey
2026 Olympic
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Canada has beaten Finland 3-2 after trailing 2-0 to advance to the gold medal game in men’s hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winning goal on a power play with 35.2 seconds left.
Finland jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to a power-play goal from Mikko Rantanen and a short-handed goal from Erik Haula, but Canada fought back through goals from Sam Reinhart and Shea Theodore.
Canada was without captain Sidney Crosby due to an injury he suffered against Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Share your reaction with us at live@theathletic.com.
Canada awaits the winner of today's second semifinal between the United States and Slovakia. Puck drop is coming up in 20 minutes at 3:10 p.m. ET. You can follow our live buildup and coverage of that game here.
Finland head coach Antti Pennanen speaking after the game about why he challenged the third Canada goal and not the second: “I think (the third) goal was offside from our side. It was a tight situation and a tough call, but we thought it was offside.
“The (second goal) was a good goal, a good call.”
Drew Doughty speaking about Canada wanting to win today's game for the injured Sidney Crosby: "Before the game, it is something we talked about. We want Sid to have another opportunity to play and hopefully win another gold medal."
Canada head coach Jon Cooper speaking after the win: “It was tough. We gave them a faceoff goal then we gave them a shorty. We gave them two freebies and against Finland you can’t give those up as it’s so hard to score against them.
“We got a big first goal so we could take a breath, we were only down one. We only gave up two or three shots in the period.
“I thought that if we got the next one I’d like our chances. Pretty exciting game but they’ve given their coach heart palpitations.”
On what it would mean for NHL players to win Olympic gold: “NHL players have not had the ability to play in the Olympics since 2014, that’s 12 years. Some of these kids were in diapers then.
“They’ve never been part of this. There is so much pride. The hockey has been so great and so close. That’s why the Olympics are unique. There is nothing like it in the world. It’s what you look forward to every four years.”
Connor McDavid speaking about advancing to an Olympic gold medal game: “It’s amazing. A crazy game. Two crazy games to get to this point. I feel incredibly grateful to be in the final.”
On today's comeback win: “Just a slow grind. Slowly but surely we found a way. Going two down is never ideal, especially against such a team like Finland.
“It took all 40 minutes, 60 minutes, to get it done.”
Several of Finland's players were asked after the game about now playing for the bronze medal.
Juuse Saros: "It's still a medal. You want to bring something home. Obviously we're going to give everything we've got."
Joel Armia: "There's one game left, so we're going to just forget about this and move on."
Eetu Luostarinen: "Obviously it sucks, but we still have a game and we will try to take all the focus and go play that one."
Erik Haula, who scored Finland's second goal short-handed, speaking after the defeat: “I’m disappointed, sad, upset. A lot of emotions. I feel flat. I don't know how to explain it. It's hard to feel anything right now.
"We lost. They're going to the gold medal game, and we're going for bronze. I don't feel anything.”
On his goal: “It was a broken play. I had a good read on it. I was able to step on all the way and come in full speed. I hit the blue line and was able to make a good run.”
Mikael Granlund speaking after the loss: “We played against a really good team. We got a great start, got the lead. We were defending really well throughout the game, but obviously they got a couple of goals on the power play.
“I'm really proud of all of us, but at the same time, we got a chance. We really did. We played great hockey against a really good team. We were a bit short tonight. This is hockey."
On the bronze-medal game: “We'll be ready for that one.”
Mikko Rantanen, who scored Finland's first goal, speaking after the game about the challenge of defending against Canada for so long: “They were pushing hard, Juuse Saros was making big saves, and we were defending hard, but I think they got us in the second. We had to defend so much we didn't have the legs to go play some offense.
"We had a couple of looks in the third, but they were pushing hard, and obviously their power play made a difference as well.
“We tried, but when you defend for 25 to 30 seconds in your defensive zone, there's not one guy in the world who can go on offense after that. They were just coming at us. The third period was tighter, but they were still pushing hard and found a way.
“I'm proud of every guy, how we battled and defended really hard. I’m just proud of every guy, but the defeat doesn't make us happy now at all.”
Bo Horvat began the tournament on Canada’s top penalty-killing unit with Brandon Hagel. The rationale at the time was that Horvat had Canada’s best faceoff numbers in the NHL this season, he played well on the penalty kill with the New York Islanders this season, and with Anthony Cirelli’s late injury, Canada needed a partner for Hagel.
“He’s our best faceoff guy on both sides of the ice,” Canada assistant coach Pete DeBoer, who runs the penalty kill, said just before the tournament. “He’s done a really good job on the Island. I talked to Bob Boughner and he’s been very good there the first half, so we’re going to start with that. But Hagel and Cirelli were two of the best in the world; they had great chemistry. So I don’t know if we can rebuild that, but we’re going to start with that.”
Horvat entered this game with a team-best 61 percent success rate in the faceoff circle, so in that sense, he was living up to the coaching staff’s expectations. But Nick Suzuki has essentially replaced Horvat as Hagel’s primary penalty killing partner and on Finland’s first power play of the game, Horvat did not touch the ice.
Sam Bennett has been known to collide with the odd NHL goalie. Sorry, Maple Leafs fans, we had to. But his goalie interference penalty in the opening period was ill-advised. Discipline is paramount at this stage of the Olympic tournament. One single penalty could be the deciding factor in a close game. With Bennett in the box after he collided with Saros, Rantanen ripped a one-timer top corner for a 1-0 Finland lead. So it was indeed a costly penalty.
Josh Morrissey was ruled out again for Team Canada and it can’t be understated what a loss that’s been for the team in this tournament. He’s their second-best defenseman after Cale Makar. His loss has hampered what was supposed to be Canada’s shutdown pair again with Colton Parayko, as it was at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year. Morrissey went the full hour at practice on Tuesday on the eve of the quarterfinals and it sure appeared as though he was on the mend. But he missed that game, then skipped Thursday’s optional practice before once again being scratched for Friday’s semifinal. Not ideal.
Team Canada has rotated a few defensemen with Parayko since his absence. It was Thomas Harley’s turn Friday, which really makes the most sense as Harley and Morrissey share a similar skill set. That left Travis Sanheim and Drew Doughty as the third pairing for Friday’s game. Sanheim pinched in a couple of times in the opening period to create some looks for Canada.
Down 2-1 and looking for offense, Team Canada made a tangible adjustment to open the third period. With Finland collapsing down low so much while protecting the net, the Canadians started using their point men more, looking for point shots to get tips or rebounds. It finally led to Shea Theodore’s blast from the point getting through and beating Saros top corner to tie the game 2-2.
The Finns paid the price for their rope-a-dope approach after going up 2-0 in the second period. They sat back way too much, trying to protect a lead with too much time left in the game. The shots were 14-3 Canada in the second period alone.
A common theme amongst our readers is that Finland played too defensively after taking the 2-0 lead.
Marcus B.: Finland lost that game the second they scored that short-handed goal. You can’t just play defense against the Canadians with how amazing they are. Stupid penalty at the end but they shouldn’t be in that position to begin with.
Michael M.: Almost felt inevitable.
John M.: That was way too close for my liking. The Finns are a tough out!
Keyser S.: Finland should have learned the lesson from USA sitting back in playing defense will allow a team too many chances on offense.
Anonymous: Finland went to sleep after the first period.
There’s definitely a lot of chatter on social media about the Shea Theodore goal and whether or not it should’ve been challenged. Martin Biron, a retired NHL goalie, seemed to think the Finns should’ve challenged the goal.
Here is his rationale:
💬: “IIHF rules are more strict and yes Marchand gets pushed into Saros but 63 went to the crease on his own first. Finland’s only way to win this game was to keep it 2-1.”
Connor McDavid said Sidney Crosby was around the team in the room at intermissions, dissecting and figuring out solutions for Canada.
Nathan MacKinnon speaks about scoring the game-winning goal and playing in the gold medal game:
💬: “It felt great. We had a lot of good opportunities, a lot of good battles to get the puck back.
💬: “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.”
Two Canadian players were on those gold medal winning teams for Canada in Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. That would be Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty, each chasing their third Olympic gold.
Of course, we don’t know Crosby’s status yet for the gold medal game.
Finland legend Teemu Selanne, a four-time Olympic medalist, thought the penalty against Niko Mikkola for high-sticking Nathan MacKinnon that led to MacKinnon's game-winning goal was "embarrassing" for the referees.
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