Team Canada is packing it up early after a major upset in the quarter-finals of the 2025 IIHF World Championship.

With a Canadian team boasting the likes of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Jordan Binnington, and Macklin Celebrini, it seemed like a matchup against a fledgling Denmark team would be as easy as it gets. That could not have been further from the truth.

The Danes sported just a single NHL regular in Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets, but have had a chip on their shoulder throughout the entire tournament. They just squeaked into the medal round with a 2-1 shootout victory over Germany on Tuesday and had all sorts of momentum on their side with a hometown crowd against the Canadians on Thursday afternoon in Herning, Denmark.

No goals were scored through the first 40 minutes, and it was Canada’s Travis Sanheim who broke the ice in the final frame. Ehlers tied things up for Denmark with just 2:17 left in the third before Nick Oleson potted the game-winner during with just 49 seconds to go.

The Danish fans went wild in the arena.

NICK OLESEN GIVES DENMARK THE LEAD WITH UNDER A MINUTE TO PLAY! 😱🇩🇰#MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/NThsHSRie9

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) May 22, 2025

“There is a lot of disappointment,” Crosby said. “We got better as the tournament went on, and while I do not think we were our best tonight, we were able to find a way to give ourselves a lead. It is disappointing because we have such a great group, but unfortunately we could not get it done.”

Crosby, MacKinnon and Ryan O’Reilly were named Canada’s three best players of the tournament.

This is a particularly shocking upset as this was a Canadian team that boasted multiple NHL superstars. They fared well during the round-robin stage, posting a 6-0-1 record, while Denmark went 3-3-1.

“We had looks [at the net], but they were not the looks we wanted to have,” said Team Canada head coach Dean Evason. “We did not get to the inside, and we did not do the things that we did all tournament to have success.

“It came back to bite us, and obviously this is a devastating loss. We needed to be better in all areas, but unfortunately we were not. It is tough to swallow, and it is very frustrating and disappointing to come this far and fall short.”

This is the second time in less than a year that a Canadian national hockey team has been upset by a seemingly easy opponent, as Latvia defeated Canada at the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship back in December.

Denmark will now advance to the semi-final against Switzerland, which is set for Saturday morning. The winner of that matchup will face the winner of the other semi-final between Sweden and USA in the gold medal game.

Canada is now on a string of disappointing finishes at this tournament, having placed fourth in last year’s championship. This will be the first time that the country has been absent from the top-four finishers since 2014.

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