MILAN — The 2026 Olympics men’s quarterfinals were as dramatic as you could get.
Four games. Three went to overtime, including the USA beating Sweden.
Top-seeded and heavily favored Canada overcame two one-goal deficits and the loss of captain Sidney Crosby to win 4-3 in OT. Defending champion Finland overcame a 2-0 deficit to stay alive with a 3-2 overtime victory.
The United States’ game went a different way. It yielded a late tying goal but outshot the Swedes 6-0 and prevailed on a Quinn Hughes overtime goal.
The USA will face Slovakia, which beat Germany 6-2 in the first game of the day. Canada and Finland will be the other semifinal.
Here’s all of the action from Wednesday’s win-or-go-home quarterfinals.
Quinn Hughes showed the Americans what they were missing at the 4 Nations Face-Off, scoring an overtime goal and an assist to down Sweden on Wednesday.
Hughes was hurt and couldn’t play in last year’s tournament, which the USA lost to Canada in overtime. But the mobile defenseman connected against Sweden at 3:27 of the extra period. He also picked up the second assist on a second-period goal by Dylan Larkin, who tipped in a shot by Quinn’s brother, Jack.
Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the USA, allowing only Mika Zibanejad’s tying goal with 1:31 left in the third period. Hellebuyck has given up only three goals in three games at the Olympics.
Defending champion Finland was trailing Switzerland 2-0 after two periods on goals by Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter.
But the Finns rallied with third-period goals by Sebastian Aho and Miro Heiskanen.
Artturi Lehkonen scored at 3:23 of overtime to keep Finland’s hopes of a repeat alive.
Mitch Marner scored at 1:22 of overtime as Canada overcame two one-goal deficits to advance.
Macklin Celebrini opened the scoring for Canada three minutes into the game, but Lukas Sedlak and David Pastrnak made it 2-1 for Czechia going into the second period.
Canada captain Sidney Crosby hobbled off the ice and down the tunnel after a hard hit by Radko Gudas, after which Crosby got crunched by a couple of Czechs with about 14 minutes left in the second period.
Michal Klempny took an interference penalty midway through the period and Nathan MacKinnon made Czechia pay for it with a power play goal.
Connor McDavid assisted on both goals, giving him 11 points in four games, matching the most points ever in a single Olympics featuring NHLers.
Ondrej Palat scored with 7:42 to play off a nice pass from Martin Necas, with Tomas Hertl making a block in Czechia’s zone to get the play going.
But Nick Suzuki tied the game with 3:27 left.
Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby skated slowly toward the dressing room after a heavy check during the second period.
The Pittsburgh Penguins star was checked by Czechia defenseman Radek Gudas during the second period and then by two Czech players along the boards. As he skated away, he was limping slightly. He eventually went to the dressing room and didn’t return.
Czechia was leading 2-1 at the time of the injury, but Nathan MacKinnon later tied it 2-2 and Canada eventually won 4-3 in overtime.
The Germans, confident they were hitting their stride, stumbled instead, losing to plucky Slovakia, who went from group winner to Olympic semifinalist. The Slovakians, well-rested from having two days between games, made it 1-0 in the first period on a goal from Pavol Regenda. Slovakia really took over in the second period, with goals from Milos Kelemen and Oliver Okuliar 33 seconds apart early in the second period, prompting Germany to take a timeout.
Dalibor Dvorsky furthered the damage to 4-0 before Lukas Reichel put Germany on the board.
Regenda scored again in the third period, and Frederik Tiffels edged Germany within three goals with 11 minutes to play. Tomas Tatar put his Slovaks back up by four with an empty-net goal with 3:27 to play.
The Germans looked tired from having played the previous day, needing to advance to the quarterfinals by beating France in a qualification game.
All times Eastern and accurate as of Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at 5:36 p.m.
Peacock is streaming every game live.
The 12 teams are divided into three groups. They are:
Teams play one game each against the other three teams in their group. Countries get three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime/shootout loss and zero for a regulation loss.
After the preliminary round is complete, teams are seeded 1 through 12 under the following criteria:
The top four teams (group winners and best second-place team) get a bye to the quarterfinals. Teams 5-12 play in a qualifying round, with the winners going to the quarterfinals.
Playoff qualification games are on Feb. 17, quarterfinals are Feb. 18 and semifinals are Feb. 20.
The bronze medal game is Feb. 21 and the gold medal game is Sunday, Feb. 22.
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