Marner nets winner in OT thriller as Canada edges Czechia 4-3

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Canadians can breath a sigh of relief.

Mitch Marner scored at 1:22 into overtime, giving Canada a thrilling 4-3 win over Czechia in men’s hockey quarter-final action Wednesday at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Macklin Celebrini, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki also scored for Canada, while Celebrini and Connor McDavid had two assists. Jordan Binnington earned the win in goal, making 21 saves.

Lukas Sedlak, David Pastrnak and Ondrej Palat scored for Czechia, with Roman Cervenka adding two helpers. Lukas Dostal was outstanding in a losing effort in goal, stopping 38 of 41 shots.

Celebrini opened the scoring with his fifth of the tourney 3:05 into the first period.

McDavid stole the puck off David Pastrnak near the Czechia blue-line, then moved in and dropped a pass to Celebrini, who beat Dostal to make it 1-0.

Sedlak evened things up at 1-1 at 8:34. Canada’s Mark Stone made an ill-advised cross-ice pass in the neutral zone which was picked off by Radko Gudas. He moved into the Canadian zone and got the puck to Cervenka, who found Sedlak and the Czech veteran beat Binnington.

Pastrnak gave Czechia a 2-1 lead at 14:49 on the power play, ripping a shot from the left offensive faceoff circle past Binnington on the short side.

It was the first time in the tournament Canada had trailed in a game. Shots on goal after one period favoured Canada, 11-10.

Canada began to carry the play early in the second. Three minutes in, Makar rang shot off post.

Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby left the ice and walked gingerly down the tunnel six minutes into the period and did not return. He was replaced by Suzuki on a line with Stone and Marner.

MacKinnon pulled Canada even on the power play at 7:44, taking a feed from McDavid and beating Dostal from the left circle for his third of the tournament.

Canada outshot the Czechs 17-5 in the middle frame.

Palat gave Czechia a 3-2 lead 12:18 into the third, taking a drop pass from Martin Necas and rifling a shot past Binnington.

With Canadian fans everywhere on the edge of their seats and time running down, Suzuki perfectly tipped home a Devon Toews point shot with 3:27 left in the third to pull Canada even at 3-3.

With 70 seconds left in the period, Binnington foiled Necas on a breakaway and the game went into three-on-three overtime.

In OT, Marner danced through three defenders and lifted a backhand past Dostal for the winner, sending Canada into the semifinals.

In other quarter-final action Wednesday, Slovakia beat Germany 6-2. Later in the day, Switzerland was playing Finland and Sweden was set to face the U.S.

NOTES: Celebrini, 19, became the youngest Canadian to ever score a goal in elimination game in a best-on-best tourney… Six days ago, Canada beat the Czechs 5-0 in preliminary-round play… McDavid now has 11 points, tying Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne (both 2006) for the most points in an Olympic men’s tourney.