Canada survives massive scare from Czechia on Marner’s OT winner

The favorites to win gold medal and the winners of the last two best-on-best men’s hockey Olympic tournaments are still alive.

Canada survived one of the biggest upset bids in any sport of the Milan Cortina Olympics by defeating Czechia 4-3 in overtime. It was a thrilling finish, with Ondrej Palat giving Czechia a 3-2 lead with under eight minutes left in the third period on a transition rush after Czechia got away with having six players on the ice in the defensive zone. But Nick Suzuki’s deflection tied the score with 3:27 left.

Early in the 10-minute, 3-on-3 overtime, Mitch Marner danced through the entire Czech defense and beat goaltender Lukas Dostal to end the game. It’s not the first time he’s come through in international overtime, as Marner scored in overtime against Sweden in the opener of last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Connor McDavid won the tournament in overtime against the United States, burying a feed from none other than Marner.

Canada won despite an injury to captain Sidney Crosby that knocked him out for the final two regulation periods and overtime. He was announced out for the game with a lower-body injury by Hockey Canada.

McDavid made individual history by assisting on each of Canada’s first two goals, giving him 11 points for the tournament. That ties Teemu Selanne for most points in an Olympics featuring NHL players, which he established back in 2006.

Canada is the second team to reach the semifinals. Slovakia was the first to advance after beating Germany 6-2.