Usa Canada Hockey Game Headlines Final Day of Milan Cortina Olympics

The usa canada hockey game in the men’s final will cap the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday, one of five events that will decide gold medals before the closing ceremony; the United States arrives off a 6-2 semifinal win over Slovakia but is expected to face a far tougher challenge in the final.

Usa Canada Hockey Game: roster notes and TV interest

The United States beat Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals, but commentators expect the matchup with Canada to be significantly harder for the Americans; Canada will again be without defenseman Josh Morrissey, and captain Sidney Crosby, who was injured in the quarterfinals, had not been ruled out as of Saturday afternoon. TV interest looms large: the women’s hockey gold-medal game between the two countries drew an average U. S. audience of 5. 3 million, and the men’s game is “probably safe to expect” a number topping the 9. 3 million who watched last year’s 4 Nations final. Scheduled time listings for the men’s final appear as 4: 40 a. m. ET, 10: 40 a. m. in Italy, with TV coverage on Peacock.

Five gold-medal events close the Games

The Milan Cortina Olympics wrap up Sunday with five events, all of which determine gold medals, followed by the closing ceremony; a set of memorable moments has already marked these Games, including a dog loping down the homestretch during the women’s cross-country skiing team sprint qualifying, a biathlete who confessed on television to cheating on his girlfriend, and a skier who walked off into the woods after missing a gate on his final run. Schedule information listed elsewhere in the day shows a slot at 8: 10 a. m. ET, 2: 10 p. m. in Italy, with TV coverage on Peacock.

Eileen Gu and a postponed halfpipe final

Snow in Livigno led to the postponement of the halfpipe final that had been scheduled for Saturday night; Eileen Gu, the 22-year-old born in San Francisco who attends Stanford and competes for China, is the defending gold medalist and qualified fifth for the final, while Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin was the top qualifier. Gu has taken silver in slopestyle and big air at these Games and is seeking to medal in all three freestyle skiing events for the second successive Olympics. The halfpipe schedule lists a 4 a. m. ET start, 10 a. m. in Italy, with Peacock carrying the event.

Historic women’s 50km and Jessie Diggins’ final race

This edition of the Games will feature the first Olympic women’s 50km race — a distance the International Olympic Committee described as part of making the 2026 Games “the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history. ” Fifty kilometers converts to a little more than 31 miles, which is longer than a marathon of 26. 2 miles; based on results from 50km classic World Cup races, organizers expect the top finishers in Tesero, Italy, to take a little more than two hours and 10 minutes to complete the race. The event will be the final Olympic appearance for the United States’ Jessie Diggins, who earned silver in 2022 in the 30km freestyle (the longest women’s race at the time) and who took bronze in the 10km this month for the fourth Olympic medal of her career. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, who has two individual silvers in these Games, is among the favorites, while her teammate Frida Karlsson, who won two individual golds here, withdrew due to illness.

Heats, German dominance and the U. S. standing

One of the day’s multi-heat events lists Heat 3 at 4 a. m. ET, 10 a. m. in Italy, and Heat 4 at 6: 15 a. m. ET, 12: 15 p. m. in Italy, with Peacock carrying the coverage. Through two heats, German teams hold the three fastest combined times; Germany has claimed gold and silver in the event at each of the last two Olympics and won the event at every Games from 1994 to 2006. The top U. S. team through two heats sits ninth, a full second behind the leader.

The Milan Cortina schedule closes Sunday with the five gold-medal finals and the closing ceremony; Peacock is listed as the broadcaster for multiple events, and the official times noted for finals and heats should guide viewers and teams through the final day.