MILAN \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon went from pure ecstasy to dreading the worst.<\/p>\n
The superstar forward had just snuck a shot home on a power play to give Canada a late lead in the men\u2019s hockey semifinals at the Milan Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n
After a tense review for a razor-thin offside challenge Friday, he could finally exhale.<\/p>\n
The same went for his country.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon scored with 35.2 seconds left in the third period to cap a relentless Canadian push as the sport\u2019s powerhouse battled back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Finland 3-2 and advance to Sunday\u2019s gold-medal game against the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, you\u2019re excited,\u201d MacKinnon said. \u201cThen they challenge, you get a little nervous, and it took a while \u2026 then (the linesmen) starts talking to the ref about their decision. It gets a little scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can Canada win gold if Crosby sits vs. USA? TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button and TSN Hockey analyst Frankie Corrado join Domino’s That’s Hockey to discuss how impressive Canada’s comeback win over Finland in the semifinals was with Sidney Crosby out of the lineup, and if the Canadians can win gold on Sunday without him. <\/p>\n
The sequence in question revolved around the trailing skate of Canadian forward Macklin Celebrini on the entry, less than a minute earlier, when Connor McDavid bobbled the puck ever so slightly at the blue line.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jon Cooper said he immediately asked the video coaches to check on the play for offside. They assured him it was clean \u2014 a message he passed onto his bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen when it got challenged, now I\u2019m questioning our guys, \u2018Did you guys get this right?\u2019\u201d Cooper shared with a grin. \u201cThere\u2019s some words being said there. Again and again, they said, \u2018It\u2019s good, it\u2019s good, it\u2019s good.\u2019 It was close. There was no doubt it was close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Reinhart and Shea Theodore had the other goals for Canada, which will face either the United States or Slovakia in the podium decider to cap the NHL\u2019s return to the Games. Jordan Binnington made 15 saves. <\/p>\n
McDavid picked up two assists to set the record for points by an NHLer at a single Olympics with 13. <\/p>\n
The U.S. advanced to Sunday\u2019s final with a convincing 6-2 semifinal win over Slovakia.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon steps up with ‘gutsy performance’ to send Canada to gold medal game Mark Masters, Pierre LeBrun and Ryan Rishaug discuss Nathan MacKinnon coming through in the absence of his good friend Sidney Crosby against Finland in the semifinals, the incredible level of trust Jon Cooper is showing in 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini, how well Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett and Tom Wilson worked as a second line. <\/p>\n
Canada was minus captain Sidney Crosby after he suffered a lower-body injury in Wednesday\u2019s thrilling 4-3 overtime victory against Czechia in the quarterfinals. McDavid wore the \u2018C\u2019 against Finland in the two-time gold medallist\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
Cooper was asked about Crosby\u2019s availability for Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 48 hours to decide,\u201d said the coach. \u201cHe\u2019s got a better chance of playing in the gold-medal game than he had playing in (Friday).\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran forward Brad Marchand said the team wanted to make sure Crosby had every chance to go for gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith what he\u2019s done for the game, for our team, for all of Canada, we want to show up for him,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to do it for every single guy in that room and every person that helped you get to this point, and for the entirety of Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with what\u2019s going on with Sid, he\u2019s definitely a big rallying point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikko Rantanen and Erik Haula replied for Finland. Juuse Saros stopped 36 shots. The Finns will take on the loser of U.S.-Slovakia in Friday\u2019s late semifinal for bronze Saturday.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s deciding goal on the man advantage came after some close calls, grinding board work and a sustained pressure from a lights-out No. 1 unit that also includes Reinhart and Cale Makar.<\/p>\n
\u201cA five-man effort,\u201d MacKinnon said of a sequence that ended with McDavid\u2019s cross-ice feed. \u201cIt was a long sequence \u2026 great pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada vs. Finland player of the game With a number of players to choose from after Canada’s thrilling comeback win against Finland in the semifinals, TSN Hockey analyst Frankie Corrado joins Domino’s That’s Hockey to share his player of the game. <\/p>\n
Canadian forward Sam Bennett praised both the talent and grit that led to MacKinnon\u2019s winner. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many threats on that power play, so many dangerous players \u2026 they all just work. They\u2019re so smart. They work together so well. They can score five different ways with five different guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDavid said the goal was a year in the making after last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off, which Canada won in dramatic fashion exactly 12 months to the day on his OT clincher against the Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was built through a lot of conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cFound a way to score a big one in a big moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down 2-1 to start the third, the team in red kept coming, and Theodore finally tied it with a one-time blast at 10:34 on a play that saw Haula knock Marchand into Saros moments earlier to set off wild celebrations from the Canadian contingent on the bench and in the stands.<\/p>\n
Matthews expecting tight, hard-fought battle vs. Canada in gold medal game USA captain Auston Matthews joins Ryan Rishaug to share why he feels the win over Slovakia in the semifinals was the team’s best game so far, how eager the group is to face Canada for gold, what he thinks it will take to beat the Canadians, and much more. <\/p>\n
Cooper put a bruising energy line of Marchand, Bennett and Tom Wilson together for the first time at the tournament \u2014 and got the desired result on the 2-2 goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to put it together, actually, this late,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to wait for the right time to use it, and if it is the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a second straight nail-biter for Canada, which trailed 2-1 and 3-2 before needing overtime to avoid disaster against Czechia on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge clich\u00e9 when people say, \u2018Oh, my God, you have to have adversity to succeed,\u2019\u201d Cooper said. \u201cUntil you\u2019re actually in the adversity, then you\u2019re like, \u2018This sucks. I don\u2019t like it.\u2019 But I\u2019ve got a group that really can handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett rocked Mikkola into Saros for a goalie interference call late in the first, and Rantanen made Canada pay on the ensuing faceoff when he wired a one-timer at 16:55. <\/p>\n
Without injured star centre Aleksander Barkov at the Games, the Finns went up 2-0 at 3:26 of the second when Haula moved in alone on a short-handed breakaway.<\/p>\n
Canada, which led 31-9 on the shot clock over the final 40 minutes, went to the power play later in the period, and finally broke through when Makar\u2019s point shot was tipped by Reinhart past Saros at 14:20 to set up the late drama.<\/p>\n
Canadian fans in Milan sipped tall boys and blared songs from iconic rock band The Tragically Hip from a speaker in the sunshine outside Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena \u2014 a facility southeast of the city centre completed just ahead of the Games \u2014 in the hours before puck drop.<\/p>\n
A group of fans inside the rink hung a massive Canadian flag from the first row of the stands in the corner closest to their hockey heroes\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n
The NHL returned to the 2026 Winter Olympics after a 12-year absence. Canada won gold in 2002, 2010 and 2014 with its men\u2019s stars. The country lost in the semis in 1998 before losing to the Finns in the bronze-medal matchup, and crashed out in the 2006 quarters.<\/p>\n
Now the country is going for gold in Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t really sunk in yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon went from pure ecstasy to dreading the worst. The superstar forward had just snuck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,35068,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-465237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nathan-mackinnon-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477492","10":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116106221707595921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465237","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=465237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}