A look at five things to know from Friday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games

MILAN – From a nail-biting win in the men’s hockey semifinals to a mix of surprise medal wins in halfpipe and speedskating events to disappointing finishes in ski cross and short-track speedskating, here are five things to know from Friday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games:

GOING FOR GOLD

For the second game in a row, Canada needed a dramatic late goal in the men’s Olympic hockey tournament. The latest one landed the Canadians in the gold-medal game. Nathan MacKinnon provided the heroics this time, scoring on a power play with 35.2 seconds remaining in Canada’s comeback 3-2 semifinal win over Finland. Canada also came back from a deficit in their 4-3 win over Czechia in the quarterfinals, with Mitch Marner scoring in overtime. Connor McDavid, serving as captain in place of the injured Sidney Crosby, had two assists and set a record for points at a single Olympics with NHL players at 13. Canada will next play the United States thanks to its 6-2 win over Slovakia in the other semifinal.

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MAGNIFICENT MALTAIS

At 35 years old, Canadian speedskater Valérie Maltais is having a breakout Olympics. The veteran from La Baie, Que., won her third medal of the Games with a bronze in the women’s 1,500 metres. And it came against an impressive field, including gold medallist Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands, silver medallist Ragne Wiklund, American veteran Brittany Bowe, who was fourth, and world-record holder Miho Takagi of Japan, who finished sixth. Maltais earned Canada’s first medal at the Games in the 3,000 metres and joined with Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann to defend their Olympic women’s pursuit title. The two individual Olympic medals are the first of Maltais’s career, and she will try for more in Saturday’s mass start.

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RISING TO THE OCCASION

Friday also featured a Canadian triumph in the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe event, where a magnificent final run by Calgary’s Brendan Mackay vaulted him into third place and a bronze medal at the Games. Mackay scored 91 points in his last run — the last of the finals — edging out American Nick Goepper who had fell in his last run. The race was won by Alex Ferreira of the United States with Estonia’s Henry Sildaru finishing second. Two other Canadian competitors finished seventh and 11th.

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SLOPE SHUTOUT

Canada was shut out in one of the country’s signature events, with three skiers eliminated in the quarterfinals of the women’s ski cross. Marielle Thompson of Whistler, B.C., who carried the Canadian flag alongside fellow freestyle skier Mikaël Kingsbury in the opening ceremony, came into the Games with a gold medal from the Sochi Games and a silver from Beijing. But she was also coming back from a serious knee injury, and said she “couldn’t get going” in finishing fourth in her quarterfinal. Fellow Canadians Hannah Schmidt and Brittany Phelan were also eliminated early as Canada failed to get a medal in the event for the first time since it was introduced at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

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ENDING ON A LOW

It was a similarly disappointing end for Canadian athletes in short-track speedskating, where competitors in both the men’s 5,000-metre relay and the women’s 1,500-metre event came up empty-handed in their bid to add more medals to Canada’s tally. In the men’s race, the team of William Dandjinou, Steven Dubois, Félix Roussel and Maxime Laoun took the lead early but slipped back as the race progressed, finishing fourth behind gold-medal winners from the Netherlands, the silver-medallist South Koreans and the bronze-winning Italians. On the women’s side, Moncton’s Courtney Sarault fell in the semis during her bid to win a fifth medal in Milan-Cortina, highlighting the Canadians’ struggle as none reached the final A race for medal consideration.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.