{"id":109188,"date":"2026-02-20T00:28:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/marner-hero-canada-comeback-and-beats-czech-republic-in-ot-olympic-semifinals\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:28:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:28:04","slug":"marner-hero-canada-comeback-and-beats-czech-republic-in-ot-olympic-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nhl\/marner-hero-canada-comeback-and-beats-czech-republic-in-ot-olympic-semifinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Marner Hero: Canada Comeback and Beats Czech Republic in OT, Olympic Semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada Prevails in Quarterfinals with Olympic Agony<\/h2>\n\nWith time against them and Canada at a disadvantage against the Czech Republic in an elimination game at the Olympics, the tension gripped even the most experienced players, with gold medals and Stanley Cup rings. The pressure was evident in every play.\n\n\n
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“I never doubted, but the situation was getting a little stressful,” commented defenseman Drew Doughty.<\/p>\n\nDrew Doughty<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nFollowing captain Sidney Crosby’s injury, Canada faced a possible and shocking elimination in the quarterfinals, until Nick Suzuki managed to tie the score with a deflected goal with 3:27 remaining. Mitch Marner sealed the victory with an overtime goal, defeating the Czech Republic with a score of 4-3 on Wednesday, thus securing their place in the semifinals.\n\n\n

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\u201cEveryone had complete faith in whoever was going out on the ice,\u201d said coach Jon Cooper. \u201cWe felt it was a matter of time. We knew it was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\nJon Cooper<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Mitch<\/figure>\n\n\nThe tension was palpable when Canada found themselves at a disadvantage with 7:42 remaining, following Ondrej Palat’s goal. Replays revealed that the Czech Republic had six players on the ice, something that Nathan MacKinnon and his teammates noticed, although the referees did not.\n\nSuzuki was key in the tying goal, passing the puck to Devon Toews, whose shot was deflected by Suzuki, beating goalie Lukas Dostal and sending the puck into the net.\n\n\n
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“Toewser gave me the perfect opportunity to deflect the puck,” Suzuki said. “I just tried to put something on net.”<\/p>\n\nNick Suzuki<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nJordan Binnington stopped a David Pastrnak attempt on a breakaway with 70 seconds remaining, taking the game to regulation time. It was the highlight of Binnington’s 21 saves, in an excellent performance. Marner, for his part, demonstrated his ability for crucial moments by scoring his second overtime goal in an international tournament.\n\n\n

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“It’s the ‘x’ factor, Mitch Marner has it,” Cooper said. “He doesn’t disappoint. Sometimes he gives you a hard time, but in the end, he never disappoints.”<\/p>\n\nJon Cooper<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nCanada will face Finland in the semi-finals on Friday. The United States, which defeated Sweden in overtime, will play against Slovakia in the other semi-final.\n\n\n

Other Quarterfinal Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finland 3, Switzerland 2 (OT):<\/strong> Similar to Canada, Finland found themselves trailing against Switzerland, but managed a late goal to avoid a surprise defeat. Miro Heiskanen tied the score with 72 seconds remaining, and Artturi Lehkonen scored in overtime, securing the 3-2 victory. Heiskanen’s shot deflected off the stick of Swiss defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler and went into the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“We are a relentless team,” Heiskanen said. “We never give up. We knew we had a difficult start. It was slow, but we kept playing, kept working, and it paid off.”<\/p>\n\nMiro Heiskanen<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nFinland was down by two goals after goals by Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter in the first period. Sebastian Aho scored for Finland with 6:06 remaining.\n\nFinland advances to face Canada in Friday’s semi-finals.\n\nSlovakia 6, Germany 2:<\/strong> Dalibor Dvorsky had another brilliant performance with a goal and an assist, and Pavol Regenda scored two goals. Slovakia dominated Germany 6-2 on Wednesday, securing their place in the semifinals and guaranteeing a medal.\n\n\n

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\u201cIncredible,\u201d said captain Erik Cernak. \u201cBefore the tournament, if we had said we were going to reach the semi-finals, people would probably have laughed. But we did it, and it’s not over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\nErik Cernak<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nSlovakia suffered a scare in the second period when Juraj Slafkovsky crashed into the boards. Slafkovsky, the reigning Olympic MVP, recovered and celebrated a goal for his team.\n\n\n

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“I’m fine,” Slafkovsky said. “I was a little shaken up, but after a couple of minutes I felt fine again. I went out and my head wasn’t spinning. I was seeing normally.”<\/p>\n\nJuraj Slafkovsky<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nSlafkovsky assisted on Tomas Tatar’s goal, and was excited about his teammates’ performance.\n\n\n

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\u201cWe were saying, \u2018It doesn’t matter who’s going to score\u2019,\u201d Slafkovsky said. \u201cWe just need that extra goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\nJuraj Slafkovsky<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nSlovakia will face the United States in Friday’s semi-final.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada Prevails in Quarterfinals with Olympic Agony With time against them and Canada at a disadvantage against the Czech Republic in an elimination game at the Olympics, the tension gripped even the most experienced players, with gold medals and Stanley Cup rings. The pressure was evident in every play. “I never doubted, but the situation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1467,662,759,481],"class_list":{"0":"post-109188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-overtime","11":"tag-semifinals"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}