United States and Canada advance to men's hockey gold medal game

MILAN, Italy — In what feels like destiny, the United States and Canada will meet in the men's hockey gold medal game after all.

Canada and Finland delivered yet another thrilling finish as Nathan MacKinnon's goal with 35 seconds remaining in regulation gave Canada a 3-2 win over the defending gold medalists and a spot in the gold medal game.

Special teams was the story of the game and it was Finland that took advantage of it.

Finland scored the first goal of the game in the opening period on Mikko Rantanen's power play goal. A couple minutes into the second period, Erik Haula got a pass from Joel Amria and scored a breakaway short-handed goal after getting his shot past Jordan Binnington.

After putting pressure on Finland all game long, Canada began to regain momentum as Sam Reinhart scored a power play goal of his own to cut the deficit to one goal.

Shea Theodore tied the game midway through the third period on his one timer that blew past Finland goaltender Juuse Saros.

With just over 2 minutes left in regulation, a high sticking penalty on Finland gave Canada their fourth power play of the game and the perfect opportunity to complete the comeback.

MacKinnon was able to get his shot between the post and Saros' shoulder pad to light the lamp and give Canada their first lead of the game.

The Canadians outshot Finland 39-17 and it was clear that Finland was playing too conservative after taking the 2-0 lead in the second period.

Connor McDavid tallied two assists for Canada while 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini recorded a game-high eight shots on goal.

Team USA dominated their semifinal matchup with Slovakia with a 6-2 win to punch their ticket to the gold medal match on Sunday and force the third ever gold medal matchup between the US and Canada.

The US controlled the game for the first two periods and took a five goal lead into the third period which would end up being too insurmountable for Slovakia to overcome. The US outshot Slovakia 39-24 with Connor Hellebuyck making 22 saves for the Americans.

Dylan Larkin scored the first goal for the US for the second consecutive game before Buffalo Sabres' Tage Thompson added another first period goal for the Americans.

Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel scored 19 seconds apart to increase the US lead to four goals. Hughes wasn't done there as he added another second period goal on a one-timer to beat Slovaki goaltender Stanislav Skorvanek.

Slovakia finally got on the board with a goal from Juraj Slafkovsky. It was the fourth goal of the tournament and 11th Olympic goal of Slafkovksy's young career.

Brady Tkachuk added one more goal for the US on a breakaway before Slovakia scored one last goal courtesy of Pavol Regenda.

It was quite the opposite performance from the special teams in the US-Slovakia game compared to the Canada-Finland game as the US and Slovakia combined to go 1/10 on the power play.

The US and Canada will play for gold and silver on Sunday while Finland and Slovakia battle for bronze on Saturday.

Slovakia vs. Finland at 12:40 p.m. MST Feb. 21.

United States vs. Canada at 6:10 a.m. MST Feb 22.

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