Mens Hockey Gold Medal Game Time: U.S., Canada Set for Sunday Final After Semifinal Wins
The mens hockey gold medal game time is set for Sunday, when the United States will face Canada in what organizers billed as the final event of the Winter Olympics. Both teams reached the championship after Friday semifinal wins: Canada edged Finland 3-2 and the United States routed Slovakia 6-2.
Canada rallies past Finland 3-2
Canada overturned a 2-0 deficit to beat Finland 3-2 in the first semifinal, scoring the winner on a power play with 36 seconds left in regulation. Sam Reinhart and Shea Theodore supplied Canada’s first two goals, and Nathan MacKinnon delivered the late power-play tally that completed the comeback. Canadian captain Sidney Crosby, who left Wednesday’s semifinal, did not play in the Friday match. The win followed a run of close finishes across the tournament: three men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday and both women’s medal-round games on Thursday went to overtime, and Friday’s first semifinal continued that stretch of dramatic games.
U. S. routs Slovakia 6-2
The United States had an easier night in the second semifinal, building a 5-0 lead on the way to a 6-2 victory over Slovakia. Dylan Larkin opened the scoring 4: 19 into the game, and Jack Hughes scored twice in the second period as the U. S. pulled away. Hughes’s two second-period goals helped create the cushion that allowed the Americans to finish the game comfortably and book their spot in Sunday’s final. For fans checking the mens hockey gold medal game time, the matchup is the long-anticipated rematch of meetings during last year’s 4 Nations series.
Mens Hockey Gold Medal Game Time
The rematch between the United States and Canada — described in coverage as the matchup everyone wanted to see — will decide Olympic gold on Sunday. The U. S. men are playing for the nation’s first Olympic hockey gold since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice. ” Canada has won the last two Olympic tournaments with NHL players, in 2010 and 2014, and has claimed three of the last four gold medals in Olympics that featured NHL talent.
Ferreira wins halfpipe, dramatic final runs and crashes
Freestyle halfpipe skier Alex Ferreira took gold with a decisive final run, his third Olympic medal in his third appearance. Ferreira had silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022; after two runs he was second to Estonia’s Henry Sildaru, with a best of 90. 50 to Sildaru’s 92. 75. Ferreira improved to 93. 75 on his final run, and Sildaru followed with a better score but finished 0. 75 points behind Ferreira. Brendan Mackay of Canada took bronze, two points behind Sildaru.
The event included hard crashes. Nick Goepper landed hard on the deck on his final jump in the final run and endured a violent crash; his fiancée, Corinn Childs, sent a text message saying, "He's good. He'll be sore but he's a trooper (sic). " New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives also suffered a violent crash and, at 19, was taken out of the halfpipe on a sled. For the United States in the halfpipe, Goepper finished fourth, Birk Irving was fifth and Hunter Hess finished 10th; Hess had faced backlash for comments about having "mixed emotions" representing the U. S.
Bronze match and what’s next on the schedule
Finland and Slovakia will meet Saturday for the bronze medal. The United States and Canada will play Sunday for the gold medal in the final event of the Winter Olympics, closing out the Games with the highly anticipated rematch between the two North American powers.
