Canada men continue march for hockey gold; Sarault seeks fourth medal at Olympics

MILAN – Canada’s men’s hockey team returns to action in the quarterfinals and Courtney Sarault chases another short-track speedskating medal on Day 12 of the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The Canadians are set to face Czechia in the men’s hockey tournament in a rematch of their tournament opener.

Canada handed the Czechs a 5-0 loss before going on to defeat Switzerland 5-1 and France 10-2. Czechia defeated Denmark 3-2 yesterday in a qualification playoff to face Canada.

Moncton’s Sarault headlines Canada’s women’s 3,000-metre short-track relay team in its final against South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands. Sarault is in search of her fourth medal at the Games, having won silver in the mixed team relay and women’s 1,000, in addition to bronze in the 500.

Canada had a couple of chances to add to its medal count in early events, but came up short in freeski aerials and snowboard slopestyle.

Mark McMorris, who had won a bronze medal in each of the three previous Games, finished eighth in men’s slopestyle. 

McMorris completed his first run, but only scored 75.50. He then fell in the second jump of his second run and crashed in hits third.

The 32-year-old from Regina was only cleared to compete last Thursday. He crashed in training on Feb. 4 before the big air competition and sustained a concussion, pelvic bone bruising and strained abdominal muscles after being stretchered off the course for a hospital visit.

“I’m feeling pretty beaten up. Mentally and physically,” McMorris said after the event. “But I’m proud of my efforts. I’m really really really proud to make it to a fourth Olympics. I know I haven’t left any stone unturned.”

Yiming Su of China won gold, followed by Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa and American Jake Canter.

Cameron Spalding of Havelock, Ont., finished 10th.

Laurie Blouin of Quebec City finished fifth in the delayed women’s snowboard slopestyle final.

Blouin was looking to return to the podium after a fourth-place finish at the 2022 Beijing Games following her silver in Pyeongchang in 2018. 

She crashed on what was shaping up to be a strong second run, then was clean in her third run but settled for a score of 68.60.

Juliette Pelchat of Whistler, B.C., was ninth in her Olympic debut.

Mari Fukada of Japan won gold, beating 2022 Olympic Champion Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand and Japan’s Kokomo Murase.

The event was one of a few to be pushed back due to poor visibility and snow yesterday.

In women’s freeski aerials, Marion Thénault of Sheerbrooke, Que., just missed out on the big final after finishing seventh in the first round of the final. She had led through qualifying.

In curling, Canada’s Brad Jacobs tuned up for the playoffs with an 8-3 victory over Joël Retornaz of host Italy. 

Jacobs and his Calgary-based team of Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert improved to 7-1.

Canada will close out its round-robin schedule on Thursday morning against Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell ahead of the semifinals that evening.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2026.