Mitch Marner celebrates his overtime winner with Macklin Celebrini and Thomas Harley.Mike Segar/Reuters
Mitch Marner was the hero Wednesday, cutting to the net in overtime and putting a backhand into the top corner over Czech goalie Lukas Dostal, sending Team Canada to the semi-finals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Canada beat Czechia 4-3, but the Czechs gave the Canadians their toughest game of the tournament so far. It was a tense, physical affair that left them playing without captain Sidney Crosby, who was injured on a heavy hit in the second period.
Marner said it was an emotional game.
“A roller coaster ride, ups and downs, but we always trusted our systems, always trusted our game,” Marner said afterward.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one.”
With a star turn at the Olympics, Celebrini is becoming a celebrity
Ahead of Canada’s quarter-final game against Czechia, David Pastrnak called Team Canada one of the most talented rosters ever assembled.
But after being beaten 5-0 by Canada to open the tournament, Pastrnak suggested the Czechs show less reverence during Wednesday’s must-win quarter-final.
“This might be the best team ever,” Pastrnak said. “So maybe let’s put the respect aside a little bit and try to take their game to them.”
Until Marner’s winner, the game conjured the ghosts of the 1998 Nagano Olympics, when the Czechs defeated Canada in a shootout to eliminate a team of NHL stars that included Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros.
Macklin Celebrini of Canada scores the team's first goal in the game against Czechia on Wednesday.Mike Segar/Reuters
Early on, though, Canada got off to a quick start.
Just over three minutes into the first period, Connor McDavid stole the puck in the neutral zone, dodged around the stationary Czech defence and dropped a pass to a trailing Macklin Celebrini, who snapped it past Czech goalie Lukas Dostal.
Celebrini’s fifth goal of the tournament put Canada up 1-0.
But the Czechs stuck to their plan.
Midway through the period, Roman Cervenka swooped wide into Canada’s zone and centred a pass to Lukas Sedlak, who had somehow drifted uncovered between Cale Makar and Thomas Harley. Sedlak put it past Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington to tie the game.
Cathal Kelly: Czechs invoke Nagano spirit as Canada narrowly avoids a history lesson
About five minutes later, with the Czechs on the power play after a Celebrini interference penalty, Filip Hronek sent a pass to Pastrnak, who one-timed the puck into the upper reaches of the net.
With the Czechs suddenly up 2-1, it was the first time Canada had trailed in the tournament.
“This is the Olympic Games. This is the best of the best,” Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper said after the game. “This is why all the players want to come to this, because they want to show who they are and they want to flex. And if you think you’re rolling through this tournament, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Czechia's Ondrej Palat scores a goal against Canada goalkeeper Jordan Binnington.Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
Canada had not played in a close game to this point. After shutting out the Czechs in the opener, Canada dismissed the Swiss 5-1 and steamrolled over France, 10-2.
But the Czechs have a history of causing Canada problems at the Winter Games.
The last time Canada played Czechia in an elimination game, at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hasek famously eliminated Canada in a shootout, squandering Gretzky’s one chance at an Olympic gold medal. That moment, immortalized in Czechia, has forever lived as a dark moment in Canadian hockey history.
The game was physical from the start, with Czechia demonstrating the intended lack of respect Pastrnak had prescribed. Several Czech players spent the first period trying to goad power forward Tom Wilson into a penalty.
In the second, Radko Gudas hit Crosby in the neutral zone, landing on top of the Canadian captain with his full body weight. Minutes later, Crosby left the game and did not return, as his parents looked on from the stands.
Cathal Kelly: Olympic hockey demonstrates how good the NHL could be, but isn’t
Defenceman Drew Doughty later responded, levelling Pastrnak with a heavy hit as he was coming down the boards into Canada’s end.
Cooper couldn’t say after the game how bad Crosby’s injury was. But he said the players wanted to win the game for him.
“That was a big thing,” Cooper said. “We didn’t want this to be, you know, Sid’s last game at this Olympics, so it was a big motivator for the guys coming out.”
Midway through the period, Cooper reunited Nathan MacKinnon, McDavid and Celebrini on the top line. It was a high-powered combination he’d played with during the tournament when he wanted to jump-start Canada’s offence with three of the fastest forwards in the game.
With Canada on the power play, McDavid fed a pass from the side of the net to MacKinnon, who shot through a screen to tie the game at two.
The assist gave McDavid 11 points in the tournament, tying him for the most at an Olympics where NHL players have participated.
Reuniting the talent-heavy line appeared to shift the game, with the play tilting in Canada’s favour for the balance of the period.
With the score deadlocked, the third period was a defensive grind. With less than eight minutes remaining though, and Canada leading 32-20 in shots, Ondrej Palat took a pass from Martin Necas on the rush and fired it past Binnington, putting Czechia up 3-2.
With 3:27 remaining, Devon Toews shot from the point and Nick Suzuki tipped the puck through Dostal’s five-hole, tying the game 3-3 and sending it to overtime.
Toews said the tying goal was a play they had practised, and praised Suzuki’s execution on the tip.
“A lot of times the guys are standing still, but for a guy to be moving across and generating a moving screen like that and tip it is pretty special,” Toews said.
After winning handily during the tournament’s preliminary round games, MacKinnon said it wasn’t a bad thing that Canada faced a challenge.
“The Olympics are a hard tournament. It’s good we had a tough test here,” MacKinnon said.
Follow our live daily coverage of the Winter Games.