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Live sport on SN this weekendRivals USA and Canada to meet in ice hockey's dream gold medal match
Carsten Lappe • February 21st, 2026 4:20 pm
Nathan MacKinnon scored Canada's late winner to set up the men's ice hockey final against the US | Photo: AP
The Milan/Cortina Winter Olympics will conclude with a dream ice hockey final between superpowers Canada and United States on Sunday after they reached the gold medal match in contrasting style.
Nathan MacKinnon scored with 35.2 seconds left as Canada needed to come from two goals down to beat 2022 gold medallists Finland 3-2 on Friday (Saturday NZT).
The US team cruised to a 6-2 triumph over Slovakia in the second semi-final, with Jack Hughes scoring twice.
Canada are record champions with nine golds while the US have only two golds. Canada won their last two finals in 2002 and 2010 but the US may take heart from their women's team who beat Canada for gold on Thursday.
Slovakia and Finland contest the bronze medal match on Saturday at a tournament which marks the return of National Hockey League stars to the Games for the first time since 2014.
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Canada were without injured superstar Sidney Crosby on Friday and it is unclear whether the man who scored the 2010 winner at the Vancouver Games will be fit on Sunday.
"We have 48 hours to decide that, but I will tell you he's got a better chance of playing in the gold medal game than he had playing in tonight's game," Canada coach Jon Cooper said.
The team escaped without him on Friday when, with 60 minutes of regulation and a power play situation expiring, MacKinnon squeezed the puck into the net between the near post and the shin pad of Finnish goalie Juuse Saros.
MacKinnon did not want to have the spotlight on his own, speaking of "a five-man effort.
"I am trying to play the best I can, it is difficult out there. We are playing for our country and the logo, that is all the motivation I need to try and play my best," he said.
Finland failed with a challenge to have the goal nullified for an offside position and then ran out of time in the remaining seconds to force overtime.
Finland led 2-0 from Mikko Rantanen's power play strike right off a face-off in the 17th and a short-handed goal from Erik Haula early in the second period.
But like in their quarter-final against the Czech Republic, Canada came from behind. Sam Reinhart halved the deficit on a power play in the 35th and they were level midway through the final period from Shea Theodore to set up the dramatic finale.
"Just a slow grind. Slowly but surely we found a way. Going two down is never ideal, especially against such a team like Finland. It took all 40 minutes, 60 minutes, to get it done," Canada forward Connor McDavid said.
The US had no such trouble and never looked back after Dylan Larkin opened the scoring in the fifth minute and Tage Thompson slammed home just before the end of the first period.
Hughes and Jack Eichel scored within 19 seconds midway through the second period which ended with the US 5-0 up from Hughes' second. Brady Tkachuk completed the half dozen in the 51st, in-between Slovakia goals from Juraj Slavkovsky and Pavol Regenda.
- DPA
