The opening day of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics did not disappoint. In a matter of a few hours, Slovakia upset Finland, and Italy gave Sweden a brief scare before being severely outmatched.
Finland opened the tournament with an opportunity to erase disappointment from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Instead, they suffered a disappointing 4-1 defeat despite outshooting the opposition 40-25.
Artturi Lehkonen recorded a secondary assist on Finland’s first goal on the power play, but it wasn’t enough. Juraj Slafkovsky had two goals for Slovakia.
Joel Kiviranta dressed as Finland’s 13th forward.
Meanwhile, Gabe Landeskog quickly made his mark on the Sweden game. He laid out an Italian defender on the forecheck on his first shift and later scored a one-timer on the power play to even the score. Italy had tallied the first goal before Landeskog found the back of the net. Sweden won 5-2.
The Avalanche’s captain, who also wears the ‘C’ for Sweden, was a regular on the power play but took shifts on the fourth line with center Alex Wennberg and winger Pontus Holmberg.
