2026 Olympic Games: Canada leads 1-0 early in win-or-go-home men's hockey quarterfinal against Czechia

Playoff-bound Brad william wymark jacobs defeats italia at Milano Cortina 2026

Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo wins record-extending 10th overwinter Olympic gold medal

American Mikaela Shiffrin wins slalom for 3rd Olympic gold medal

Slovakia routs Germany to reach the men's Olympic hockey semifinals

Small cities to the world stage: N.B’s speed-skating talent inspires

Canada's Laurence St-Germain finishes 12th in Olympic slalom

Courtney Saurault is a real star of Team Canada

Sweden eliminates Latvia from Olympics, will face United States in quarterfinals

Canadian men's curling team keeps in touch with the win column

Put another one on the board for the teenager. Macklin Celebrini opened the scoring just a little over three minutes into this quarterfinal game, shooting the puck through a Czech player's legs.

It’s Celebrini's fifth goal in four games.

People who are old enough to remember the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan — the first Olympics with NHLers — might be haunted by memories of a Canada-Czech Republic quarterfinal match-up almost exactly 28 years ago.

That game finished tied 1-1. In the shootout, Canada controversially didn't call on Wayne Gretzky. The Czechs won 2-1 and the Canadians went home.

Canadians are hoping for a different outcome today.

Playoff-bound Brad Jacobs defeats Italy at Milano Cortina 2026

Brad Jacobs and his Calgary-based rink, who had already secured a spot in the Olympic semifinals, beats Italy's Joël Retornaz 8-3 in men's curling. Canada improves to 7-1 and won't finish lower than second place in round-robin play, while Italy falls to 4-4.

After a slow start, the Canadian men heated up and cruised to victory over Italy.

It's an 8-3 final and Canada is now 7-1 at the Olympics as the semifinals approach. One more round-robin game left.

The lines are in for today's men's hockey quarterfinal matchup against Czechia.

Jordan Binnington gets the start in net. Brad Marchand draws in on the fourth line.

No Sam Bennett or Josh Morrissey.

Here's the full lineup ahead of puck drop at 10:40 a.m. ET:

Forwards:

Macklin Celebrini - Connor McDavid - Tom Wilson

Brandon Hagel - Nathan MacKinnon - Nick Suzuki

Mitch Marner - Sidney Crosby - Mark Stone

Brad Marchand - Bo Horvat - Sam Reinhart

Seth Jarvis

Defence:

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Thomas Harley - Drew Doughty

Travis Sanheim - Colton Parayko

Shea Theodore

Goaltenders:

Jordan Binnington

Logan Thompson

Canada steals four in the sixth end to take a 7-3 lead on Italy.

It was 3-0 Italy leading after three ends in this game.

"We can’t do anything about that last shot. Reset right now," said Italian coach Ryan Fry.

Italian Joel Retornaz with a wide open miss on a blank attempt. Canada steals the fifth end to tie it 3-3.

Fry won gold with Canada's Brad Jacobs at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Meanwhile in another crucial game, Great Britain leads USA 6-2 in the fifth end. Both teams have 4-4 records.

It's win or go home time in the men's Olympic hockey tournament. Canada will play its first elimination game this morning at 10:40 a.m. ET against Czechia.

The Canadians handled the Czechs easily in the preliminary round, 5-0. But it's not a team Canada can take lightly.

They've got one of the best shooters in the world, David Pastrňák. There's also Martin Nečas, who's tied for third in scoring in this tournament, with seven points in four games.

Meanwhile, Canada has looked unbeatable, outscoring opponents 20-3 over just three games.

Klæbo now has five gold medals at a Winter Games to tie U.S. Long-track speed skater Eric Heiden's record from Lake Placid 1980. He could break that record if he wins Saturday's 50-kilometre mass start classic cross-country race.

Here's how Klæbo stacks up in the Olympic history books:

The limit does not exist for Norway's speed king, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. 

The cross-country phenom claimed his fifth gold medal at the Milano-Cortina Olympics this morning and tied the Winter Games record. He also tied U.S. Swimmer Michael Phelps's Olympic gold record with 10 medals.

The 29-year-old is single-handedly keeping Norway at the top of the medal standings. (Norway currently has 15 golds — 10 of which are Klæbo's. They're one gold away from tying their gold-medal performance of 16 at Beijing in 2022).

Klæbo himself is only three medals back from tying the record for the most total Olympic medals at any Games — Summer or Winter. That title is currently held by Marit Bjorgen of Norway.

He currently has 12 Olympic medals (10 gold, one silver and one bronze).

Have we mentioned that he's stupid fast?

He averaged around 17 km/h pace up a seven-per-cent gradient hill in the men's sprint classic final on Feb. 10 to drop his competitors. Watch it for yourself.

There's one cross-country event to go — the men's 50-kilometre mass start classic on Saturday — for Klæbo to surge past the Winter Games gold-medal record.

Not one but two Canadian teams just had their best-ever result in cross-country skiing's team sprint free event, with both women and men finishing in sixth place. 

Antoine Cyr and Xavier McKeever finished with a time of 18:38.69, two seconds behind Great Britain. Norway claimed gold, ringing in Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo's Winter Games record of 10 Olympic gold medals. The U.S. Team won silver, while Italy took bronze. 

The Milano-Cortina Games are the first-time the men's 10-kilometre team sprint free has ever been run (it used to be 15 kilometres).

It's also the best-ever result for Canada in any men's team sprint event.

The sixth-place result for Canadian women's team Alison Mackie and Liliane Gagnon in 20:49.43, eight seconds behind the U.S., is the best women's team sprint free result for Canada. 

They won silver in the team sprint classic (a different event) at Turin 2006.

Sweden took gold in the women's event with 20:29.99; Switzerland claimed silver and Germany won bronze. 

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