{"id":464982,"date":"2026-02-20T21:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464982\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:45:12","slug":"marchand-makes-a-pesky-impact-in-canadas-3-2-win-over-finland-in-olympic-mens-hockey-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464982\/","title":{"rendered":"Marchand makes a pesky impact in Canada’s 3-2 win over Finland in Olympic men’s hockey semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Jon Cooper has coached in the NHL long enough to know how much of a pest Brad Marchand can be as an opponent.<\/p>\n

So it was no surprise to see the so-called \u201cRat King\u201d being on brand with a men\u2019s hockey gold-medal game berth on the line in Canada\u2019s eventual 3-2 semifinal victory<\/a> over Finland at the Milan Cortina Games<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

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With Canada down 2-1 midway through the third period, the Florida Panthers forward was in his familiar spot, battling for position in front of the net, when Erik Haula shoved him into goalie Juuse Saros. Marchand remained on top of the goalie long enough to delay Saros getting set as Canada\u2019s Shea Theodore blasted a shot that beat him on the short side.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, Brad\u2019s being Brad,” Cooper said, after Canada won on Nathan MacKinnon’s goal with 36 seconds left. \u201cAnd I like that Brad.\u201d<\/p>\n

No penalty was called, and Cooper didn\u2019t expect one upon watching the replay. Marchand was outside of the crease upon being pushed into Saros, and was eventually making an attempt to get out of the crease, which follows the letter of international hockey rules.<\/p>\n

Saros could only laugh and shake his head in providing his view of what happened.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI mean, you guys (reporters) have seen him multiple times, so I think you know,\u201d the Nashville Predators goalie said. \u201cOf course, yeah. I mean, he does that all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it was during Marchand’s first 16 NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, the past two with Florida<\/a> or representing his nation in Milan, the two-time Stanley Cup winner\u2019s pesky presence continues to make an impact at age 37.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, once I got in the paint and kind of got pushed at him, I was just trying to get out of the way again,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t like it, they would\u2019ve challenged it. I knew it was a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then asked about how much he was actually pushed into Saros, Marchand replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know. Does it matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Finland coach Antti Pennanen said he declined to challenge the play because he \u201cwas really sure it was a good goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credited the line of Marchand, Sam Bennett and Tom Wilson for making a difference in a game Finland squandered a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally good hockey players. It was a huge challenge for us and overall Team Canada,\u201d Pennanen said. \u201cBut our players gave everything they had today. I\u2019m so proud of how we played today. It wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympic coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Jon Cooper has coached in the NHL long enough to know how much of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5099],"tags":[55023,154,95,5132,254,530,19,6697,4151,57,5,2086,1500,4834,15207,231,517,4,83,9,3037,280],"class_list":{"0":"post-464982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-antti-pennanen","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-bruins","11":"tag-bostonbruins","12":"tag-brad-marchand","13":"tag-bruins","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-erik-haula","16":"tag-finland","17":"tag-florida-panthers","18":"tag-hockey","19":"tag-jon-cooper","20":"tag-juuse-saros","21":"tag-mens-hockey","22":"tag-milan-cortina-games","23":"tag-nashville-predators","24":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","25":"tag-nhl","26":"tag-sam-bennett","27":"tag-shea-theodore","28":"tag-team-canada","29":"tag-tom-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116105151990150144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464982","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=464982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}