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MILAN — Nathan MacKinnon went from pure ecstasy to dreading the worst.
The superstar forward had just snuck a shot home on a power play to give Canada a late lead in the men’s hockey semifinals at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
After a tense review for a razor-thin offside challenge Friday, he could finally exhale.
The same went for his country.
MacKinnon scored with 35.2 seconds left in the third period to cap a relentless Canadian push as the sport’s powerhouse battled back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Finland 3-2 and advance to Sunday’s gold-medal game against the United States.
“Definitely, you’re excited,” MacKinnon said. “Then they challenge, you get a little nervous, and it took a while … then (the linesmen) starts talking to the ref about their decision. It gets a little scary.”
The sequence in question revolved around the trailing skate of Canadian forward Macklin Celebrini on the entry, less than a minute earlier, when Connor McDavid bobbled the puck ever so slightly at the blue line.
Head coach Jon Cooper said he immediately asked the video coaches to check on the play for offside. They assured him it was clean — a message he passed onto his bench.
“Then when it got challenged, now I’m questioning our guys, ‘Did you guys get this right?’” Cooper shared with a grin. “There’s some words being said there. Again and again, they said, ‘It’s good, it’s good, it’s good.’ It was close. There was no doubt it was close.”
Sam Reinhart and Shea Theodore had the other goals for Canada, which will face either the United States or Slovakia in the podium decider to cap the NHL’s return to the Games. Jordan Binnington made 15 saves.
McDavid picked up two assists to set the record for points by an NHLer at a single Olympics with 13.
The U.S. advanced to Sunday’s final with a convincing 6-2 semifinal win over Slovakia.
Canada was minus captain Sidney Crosby after he suffered a lower-body injury in Wednesday’s thrilling 4-3 overtime victory against Czechia in the quarterfinals. McDavid wore the ‘C’ against Finland in the two-time gold medallist’s absence.
Cooper was asked about Crosby’s availability for Sunday.
“We have 48 hours to decide,” said the coach. “He’s got a better chance of playing in the gold-medal game than he had playing in (Friday).”
Veteran forward Brad Marchand said the team wanted to make sure Crosby had every chance to go for gold.
“With what he’s done for the game, for our team, for all of Canada, we want to show up for him,” he said. “You want to do it for every single guy in that room and every person that helped you get to this point, and for the entirety of Canada.
“But with what’s going on with Sid, he’s definitely a big rallying point.”
Mikko Rantanen and Erik Haula replied for Finland. Juuse Saros stopped 36 shots. The Finns will take on the loser of U.S.-Slovakia in Friday’s late semifinal for bronze Saturday.
Canada’s deciding goal on the man advantage came after some close calls, grinding board work and a sustained pressure from a lights-out No. 1 unit that also includes Reinhart and Cale Makar.
“A five-man effort,” MacKinnon said of a sequence that ended with McDavid’s cross-ice feed. “It was a long sequence … great pass.”
Canadian forward Sam Bennett praised both the talent and grit that led to MacKinnon’s winner.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “There’s so many threats on that power play, so many dangerous players … they all just work. They’re so smart. They work together so well. They can score five different ways with five different guys.”
McDavid said the goal was a year in the making after last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, which Canada won in dramatic fashion exactly 12 months to the day on his OT clincher against the Americans.
“It was built through a lot of conversations,” he said. “Found a way to score a big one in a big moment.”
Down 2-1 to start the third, the team in red kept coming, and Theodore finally tied it with a one-time blast at 10:34 on a play that saw Haula knock Marchand into Saros moments earlier to set off wild celebrations from the Canadian contingent on the bench and in the stands.
Cooper put a bruising energy line of Marchand, Bennett and Tom Wilson together for the first time at the tournament — and got the desired result on the 2-2 goal.
“I didn’t expect to put it together, actually, this late,” he said. “You’ve just got to wait for the right time to use it, and if it is the right time.
“It worked out.”
It was a second straight nail-biter for Canada, which trailed 2-1 and 3-2 before needing overtime to avoid disaster against Czechia on Wednesday.
“It’s a huge cliché when people say, ‘Oh, my God, you have to have adversity to succeed,’” Cooper said. “Until you’re actually in the adversity, then you’re like, ‘This sucks. I don’t like it.’ But I’ve got a group that really can handle it.”
Bennett rocked Mikkola into Saros for a goalie interference call late in the first, and Rantanen made Canada pay on the ensuing faceoff when he wired a one-timer at 16:55.
Without injured star centre Aleksander Barkov at the Games, the Finns went up 2-0 at 3:26 of the second when Haula moved in alone on a short-handed breakaway.
Canada, which led 31-9 on the shot clock over the final 40 minutes, went to the power play later in the period, and finally broke through when Makar’s point shot was tipped by Reinhart past Saros at 14:20 to set up the late drama.
Canadian fans in Milan sipped tall boys and blared songs from iconic rock band The Tragically Hip from a speaker in the sunshine outside Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena — a facility southeast of the city centre completed just ahead of the Games — in the hours before puck drop.
A group of fans inside the rink hung a massive Canadian flag from the first row of the stands in the corner closest to their hockey heroes’ bench.
The NHL returned to the 2026 Winter Olympics after a 12-year absence. Canada won gold in 2002, 2010 and 2014 with its men’s stars. The country lost in the semis in 1998 before losing to the Finns in the bronze-medal matchup, and crashed out in the 2006 quarters.
Now the country is going for gold in Milan.
“It’s exciting,” McDavid said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
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