Mitch Marner has picked up where he left off from the final of last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.<\/p>\n
Marner picked up two assists, including the overtime winner to Connor McDavid, in Canada\u2019s memorable 3-2 win over the United States.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Vegas Golden Knights forward didn\u2019t waste any time making the highlight reel on Thursday during Canada\u2019s opening game of the Milano Cortina 2026 men\u2019s Olympic hockey tournament. <\/p>\n
Marner set up Golden Knights teammate Mark Stone 6:39 into the second period with a beautiful backhand saucer pass before jumping over a sliding Czech defender, giving Canada a 2-0 advantage. <\/p>\n
Sidney Crosby also had an assist on the play.<\/p>\n
After spending the first 19 years of his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Marner has 16 goals and 42 assists over 57 games in 2025-26, his first campaign with the Golden Knights. <\/p>\n
New York Islanders forward Bo Horvat gave Canada a 3-0 lead late in the second period after taking a nice feed from Brad Marchand before beating two defenders and the goalie with a burst down the middle of the ice. <\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks\u2019 19-year-old star Macklin Celebrini gave Canada a 1-0 lead late in the first period thanks to a tip-in with just six seconds remaining in the opening period. Connor McDavid and Cale Makar picked up assists on the goal.<\/p>\n
A first-overall pick in 2024, second-year player Celebrini has been one of the NHL\u2019s top point producers this season, scoring 28 goals and 53 assists over 55 games.<\/p>\n
St. Louis Blues goalie Jordon Binnington has been sharp in net for Canada, stopping all 22 shots he has faced.<\/p>\n
Lukas Dostal of the Anaheim Ducks is between the pipes for Czechia, stopping 20 of 23 shots.<\/p>\n
After taking on Czechia on Thursday, Canada will play Switzerland on Friday before closing preliminary round action on Sunday against France.<\/p>\n
Finishing first in group play will earn Canada a direct entry into the quarter-final round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mitch Marner has picked up where he left off from the final of last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[4759,149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-455882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-golden-knights","10":"tag-goldenknights","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-vegas","14":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","15":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116058989249493197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}