Mitch Marner caps Canada comeback in Olympic OT win vs. Czechia
Mitch Marner Olympic OT Win vs Czechia: With minutes left in elimination game at the Olympics and Canada trailing Czechia, players with gold medals and Stanley Cup rings started to feel butterflies.
“I never had a doubt, but it was getting a little nerve-wracking,” Drew Doughty said.
Canada lost captain Sidney Crosby to injury and was staring at quarterfinal exit until Nick Suzuki tied game with deflection goal with 3:27 left. Mitch Marner then scored over a minute into overtime to beat Czechia 4-3 and send tournament favorite into semifinals.
“Everybody had complete faith,” coach Jon Cooper said. “It felt like a matter of time.”
Canada fell behind with 7:42 remaining on Ondrej Palat goal on odd-man rush off pass from Martin Necas. Nathan MacKinnon said teammates were aware Czechia had six skaters on ice.
Suzuki sent puck to Devon Toews and redirected defenseman’s shot past Lukas Dostal into net. “Toewser gave me a perfect opportunity to tip it,” Suzuki said.
Jordan Binnington denied David Pastrnak on breakaway with 70 seconds left. He made 21 saves in excellent performance.
Marner scored overtime goal, his second overtime goal in international tournament chances. Marner also scored similar goal at 4 Nations Face-Off.
“Mitch Marner’s got it,” Cooper said. “He never disappoints.”
Canada could face Finland or Sweden in semifinals. U.S. plays Sweden in quarterfinal.
Finland vs Switzerland
Finland defeated Switzerland 3-2 in overtime. Miro Heiskanen tied game with 72 seconds left and Artturi Lehkonen scored overtime goal.
Heiskanen shot banked off Jonas Siegenthaler stick past Leonardo Genoni.
Switzerland led after Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter scored in first period. Sebastian Aho scored later to get Finland on board.
Slovakia vs Germany
Slovakia defeated Germany 6-2 to reach semifinals and guarantee medal game.
Dalibor Dvorsky scored goal and assist. Pavol Regenda scored twice in three-point game.
“Amazing,” Erik Cernak said. “People would laugh if we said semifinals before tournament.”
Juraj Slafkovsky went headfirst into boards and was slow to get up. Trainer applied ice pack to neck.
“I’m OK,” Slafkovsky said. “I felt OK again after couple minutes.”
Slafkovsky assisted Tomas Tatar empty-net goal.
“We just need that one extra goal,” Slafkovsky said.
“We have plenty of players who can score,” Martin Fehervary said.
Dvorsky led offensive effort and created goal opportunity.
Samuel Hlavaj made 25 saves and allowed only goals to Lukas Reichel and Frederik Tiffels.
Slovakia previously won bronze medal at Olympics behind Slafkovsky goals.
“We have to stick as a team,” Regenda said.
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