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There were no upsets in the medal round qualifying games at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. However, there were also no outright blowouts in Monday’s matches. In the best game of the day, Denmark threw a scare into Czechia before the Czechs held on for a 3-2 win. Second period goals spaced 1:09 apart from David Kamf and Roman Cervenka proved to be vital for the Czechs.
In Monday’s first match, Germany dispatched France, 5-1. Leon Draisaitl got the Germans off and running with an early power play goal. Later, 40-year-old former NHL player Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored the lone goal for Team France. Monday marked the final international game for Bellemare in his fine career.
Switzerland breezed past Italy, 3-0. Nico Hischier had a power play goal and an assist for the Swiss. Roman Josi and Phillipp Kurashev also tallied for the winning side. Switzerland dominated long stretches, especially in the first period (18-2 shot differential). The Italians had some push-back later but the outcome was never in doubt. Team Italy goalie Damian Clara (48 saves on 51 shots) played an outstanding game in net. Team Switzerland goalie Leonardi Genoni notched a 20-save shutout.
Later, Team Sweden wore down Latvia and methodically assembled a 5-1 victory. Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander each posted a goal and assist for Tre Kronor. Additionally, the Swedes received goals from Adrian Kempe, Gabriel Landeskog and Filip Forsberg.
Quarterfinals schedule
The four medal round quarterfinal games will all take place on Tuesday. The matchups are as follows:
- Slovakia vs. Germany: 7:10 a.m. EST. Via tiebreaker, the Slovaks were the surprise winners of their preliminary round group with Sweden and Finland. The Slovaks earned a bye in the qualification round as did Finland. Juraj Slafkovsky leads Slovakia with six points (3g, 3a) in three games. Tim Stutzle (4g, 2a) and Draisaitl (2g, 4a) have six points apiece for Germany.
- Canada vs. Czechia: 11:40 a.m. EST. Canada crushed competition in going 3-0-0 in the preliminary round. As long as the goaltending holds strong, it’s going to be hard to beat Team Canada. Connor McDavid (2g, 7a, 9 points), Macklin Celebrini (4g, 2a, 6 points), Sidney Crosby (2g, 4a, 6 points) have domination. Nathan MacKinnon (2g, 3a, 5 points) missed practice on Tuesday. Perhaps he’s still feeling the effects of the hit to the head he took against Italy. Meanwhile, the Czechs have been so-so in the tournament so far. They need David Pastrak (1g, 3a, 4 points) and Necas (3g, 4a, 7 points) to lead the way on Wednesday. Lukas Dostal has started three of the Czechs’ four games in goal. Dan Vladar started one.
- Finland vs. Switzerland: 1:10 p.m. EST. The Finns stumbled against Slovakia in their opener. Thereafter, they outworked Sweden in a well-deserved victory and obliterated Italy. Finland is quite often more than the sum of their roster parts and tends to get better and better as tournaments move along. A big game from Mikko Rantanen (1g, 3a, four points) and Dallas teammates Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz could punch a ticket to the semifinals. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen leads all players in the tourney with a +8 rating. Meanwhile, Switzerland is not an easy out for opponents but doesn’t quite have the depth of medal round favorites.
- USA vs. Sweden: 3:10 p.m. EST. One of these two potential gold-medal or silver-medal teams will leave Italy without even a chance for the bronze. Team USA (3-0-0) has tended to get off to just OK starts in this tourney but take over as games have moved along. However, the Americans also played the weakest competition in the preliminary round. Auston Matthews has five points (3g, 2a), As usual, Matthew Tkachuk has stirred the pot and gotten under opponents’ skin. He’s also collected five assists. Tre Kronor (3-1-0) has not been bad in the tournament but hasn’t truly played its A game so far. Lucas Raymond paces the team with seven assists among his eight points. Rasmus Dahlin (1g, 4a, +4) has also had a strong tourney.
