Team Canada is through to the semifinals of the men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but, boy, did they get an immense scare from an upstart Czech team.
The gold-medal favorites, playing most of the game without an injured Sidney Crosby, needed a goal from Nick Suzuki with 3:27 left in regulation to force overtime, and then got a Mitch Marner marker just 1:22 into the extra frame. The upset win would have seen Canada go without a medal at a best-on-best Olympics for the first time since 2006.
Czechia goes home empty-handed after winning a playoff qualifying matchup against Denmark to make the quarterfinals. Lukas Dostal, the Czech netminder, made 37 saves in the losing effort.
Hearts likely started beating out of the chests of Canadians when Ondrej Palat finished off an odd-man rush chance for the Czechs with 7:42 remaining in the third period. Tomas Hertl made a fantastic shot block on Thomas Harley to spring Martin Necas and Palat down the ice.
The goal, Palat’s first of the tournament, put Czechia up 3-2 after earlier goals from Lukas Sedlak and David Pastrnak.
After missing a wide-open net earlier in the contest, Suzuki made up for his gaffe and then some with the crucial game-tying tally.
The Montreal Canadiens captain decided not to dump the puck in and instead gained the Czech zone with control. Suzuki then helped filter possession to the point and moved to the front of the net where he made a deft deflection of a Devon Toews shot that made its way through Dostal.
With a breakaway stop from Jordan Binnington on Martin Necas and no more scoring in regulation, the two teams headed to overtime. In this version of the Olympic games, overtime is played 3-on-3 for 10 minutes, and if there is no deciding goal, a five-round shootout determines the winner.
However, there was no need to see the skills competition as Marner repeated his clutch brilliance from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Marner knifed through the three Czech defenders and slipped a nifty backhand past the glove hand of Dostal.
Marner called the goal the biggest of his life, even bigger than the one he scored for Canada in overtime against Sweden in Montreal last year. “It’s even more special,” he told Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. “I have my son here with me.”
Marner, oft criticized in the past for not producing in the playoffs for the Toronto Maple Leafs, has not had the same trouble when he slips on a different Maple Leaf for Team Canada.
“As a teammate, I haven’t experienced that,” teammate Mark Stone told The Boston Globe’s Matt Porter. “[At the] 4 Nations, [he] gets a huge OT goal for us, makes an incredible play for the winner. Then tonight, when we need him the most, he makes the play. So, um, I think it’s a Toronto thing.”
With the win, Washington Capitals teammates Tom Wilson and Logan Thompson advance to the semifinals, joining fellow Capital, Martin Fehervary of Slovakia. The Slovakians advanced earlier in the day after beating Germany 6-2.
Wilson played just 8:33 of ice time in Canada’s win over Czechia, losing his spot on the team’s top line to Nathan MacKinnon as head coach Jon Cooper pushed to win the game. Thompson again sat second chair to Binnington and has seen no action since beating Switzerland last week.
As the top-seeded team, Canada looks likely to play Switzerland again in the semifinals. The Swiss are currently up 2-0 on Finland after two periods in their quarterfinal matchup.
