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Nathan MacKinnon’s goal late in the third period completes Canada’s comeback as they defeat Finland 3-2 in the semifinals at Milano Cortina 2026.
The goal came after Nikko Mikkola took high-sticking penalty, giving Canada a power-play in the dying minutes of the third period.
Canada dominated play within the Finnish zone, leading to MacKinnon blasting the puck past Finland netminder Juuse Saros short-side to take the lead.
Finland had jumped out to a 2-0 lead after Mikko Rantanen scored a power-play marker at the end of the first period and Erik Haula added a shorthanded breakaway goal to start the second period.
Sam Reinhart cut the Finland’s lead in half on the power play midway through the second period by tipping a Cale Makar point-shot past Saros.
Finland hung onto their one-goal lead until midway through the third period when Shea Theodore blasted his point-shot past Saros to tie things up.
Canada is 2-for-3 on the man advantage and outshot Finland 39-16. Finland is also 1-for-2 on the power play.
The Canadians were missing captain Sidney Crosby, who is out with a lower-body injury. Connor McDavid is acting as captain for the semifinal.
McDavid recorded two assists against Finland, setting a new Olympic record with NHLers participating with 13 points in the tournament
Canada reached the gold-medal game for the fourth time since NHL players were permitted to play at the Olympics in 1998.
They went a perfect 3-0-0 during the round-robin portion of the tournament to enter the knockout stage as the tournament’s highest ranked team.
Canada reached the semifinal after narrowly defeating Czechia 4-3 in overtime during Wednesday’s quarter-final.
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