Milan, ITALY — Once again, the Milano Santagiulia Ice Arena was the stage, and win-or-go-home hockey delivered pure drama. Martin Necas and the Czechs pushed Team Canada to the brink—building leads and refusing to fold—but in the end, Mitch Marner sealed it with a clutch overtime backhand winner. Canada dodged disaster, though not without a major loss: captain Sidney Crosby left with a lower-body injury and didn’t return.
The Game
This quarterfinal at Milano Santagiulia Ice Arena came loaded with surprises—but
Team Canada jumping out to the first goal? No shock there. Just 3:05 into the game, teenage phenom Macklin Celebrini etched another chapter in his budding Olympic legend, roofing a low snipe off a slick back pass from Connor McDavid to make it 1-0.
Martin Necas had dropped that bold pre-game bomb: “We let them win the first one cause we knew we weren’t gonna win two in a row against Canada.”
That felt prophetic when Czechia roared back. Lukas Sedlak tied it at 1-1 early, then David Pastrnak unleashed a rocket on the power play to give Czechia a 2-1 lead in the second. The underdogs were barking loudly.
A soft call led to a Canadian man advantage, and Nathan MacKinnon did what Mack does best—a filthy little shimmy to shake coverage, then a laser wrister through heavy traffic that snuck top shelf on Lukas Dostal. Top cheddar, game knotted at 2-2.
Then came the gut punch for Canada.
Early in the second, Sidney Crosby absorbed a barrage—first a crunch from Ondrej Palat, then a sandwich special from Radko Gudas and Martin Necas along the boards. It was a Radko Gudas hit that had Crosby’s right leg buckled awkwardly; he winced, favored it, skating to the bench, and slowly limped to the locker room.
The captain was done for the night. Post-game, Cale Makar kept it real: “Yeah, I mean, at this point, it’s next man up. You lose a guy like that, it’s really tough. I hope he’s okay. I haven’t seen him yet.”
Nathan MacKinnon, on the injury: “Obviously, it sucks that he got hurt. Um, you know he’s obviously our captain, our leader. I hope he’s doing okay.”
Heading into the third tied 2-2 without Sid? Not the script most pundits had.
Czechia, physical and relentless, kept the pressure on. Then, with 7:42 left, they struck gold: Martin Necas threaded a perfect feed on an odd-man rush, and Ondrej Palat snapped it past Jordan Binnington’s blocker for a 3-2 lead. The Milano crowd erupted—Czechia was on the verge of one of hockey’s all-time upsets.
Minutes from glory.
But Canada refused to fold. With 3:27 remaining, Nick Suzuki played hero, tipping Devon Toews’ point shot perfectly—deflection magic to tie it 3-3. Heart rates skyrocketed.
Regulation’s dying seconds brought one last gasp: Martin Necas broke free on a breakaway with just over a minute left, going backhand five-hole… but he couldn’t beat Binnington, who was a wall late. Post-game, Necas reflected: “I tried to go backhand five hole and kinda missed the window there.”
Overtime arrived, 3-on-3 chaos. Just 1:22 in, Mitch Marner took a drop pass (from Celebrini in the rush), danced through three Czech defenders like they were pylons, and buried a slick backhander past Dostal. 4-3 Canada. The favorites survived the scare, advancing to the semis while keeping their gold-medal dream alive.
By The Numbers
The Canadian side overcame two-defecits including one in the third period. No team entering the third period down a goal has won in this tournament, so to be down with just 3 minutes left in the third and somehow pull it off is quite a feat. Nathan MacKinnon had this to say about emotions inside this game, “Yeah, it was obviously emotional, nerve-wracking. I’m glad we got the win.“
It only took 1:22 of three-on-three overtime action for Mitch Marner to win the game for Team Canada. Not bad for a guy who was labeled a big game disappearing act by fans in Toronto.
Team Canada registered 41 shots on Lukas Dostal, who did all he could to earn his team the upset. Compare that to the 24 saves by Binnington, and I’d say he was the better netminder today.
Jordan Binnington made the saves late, but his overall performance will raise more questions heading into the semi-finals, seeing as his .875 SV% tonight probably won’t cut it going forward.
Avalanche Spin
The Avalanche spin in this one is pretty obvious. As I wrote after his history-making performance yesterday, Martin Necas is clearly one of the best players in the tournament for any team—and he did even more to prove it today. Some detractors said it was easy for Marty to dominate against lesser prelim teams, but he showed up huge against the top-seeded Canadians, setting up their go-ahead goal and nearly stealing it late on a breakaway.
Nathan MacKinnon with another power-play tally, and Devon Toews with a primary assist on the game-tying goal. I said before the tourney that I wanted to see Toewser get in on some big ones, and that Suzuki tip-in might be the biggest play of the tournament so far (outside of Mitch Marner’s OT winner)
Let us know what you thought of this thriller in the comments
