{"id":62196,"date":"2026-05-26T21:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/62196\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:57:18","slug":"canada-united-states-to-meet-in-iihf-world-championship-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/62196\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada, United States to meet in IIHF World Championship quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAnthony Anex\/Keystone via AP<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 26, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sharing<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be a rematch of the Milano Cortina 2026<\/a> Olympic Winter Games gold medal match in the quarterfinals of this year\u2019s IIHF World Championship in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Canada will face the United States on Thursday with a trip to the tournament semifinals on the line. It will be the first meeting between the men\u2019s programs since the Americans won Olympic gold over the Canadians in February.<\/p>\n

With many National Hockey League stars not taking part in this year\u2019s men\u2019s worlds, the two rosters that will skate in Thursday\u2019s contest will look significantly different than those that played in Milan. The Canadian roster still features two of its Olympic headliners, though: 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini<\/a> and 38-year-old Sidney Crosby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crosby and Celebrini, who played together at last year\u2019s men\u2019s worlds, connected for two of Canada\u2019s goals in a 3-2 win over Czechia on Tuesday, the final day of the preliminary round. John Tavares<\/a> scored the game-winner at 9:25 of the third period. <\/p>\n

With the win, Canada enters the playoff round with a 7-0-0 record, placing them first in Group B.<\/p>\n

Team Canada is well aware that a strong showing in the preliminary round of the tournament will only get you so far. After going 6-0-1 at last year\u2019s event, the Canadians were upset in the quarterfinals \u2013 a result they\u2019ll look to improve upon Thursday.<\/p>\n

Canada edged Sweden 5-3 in their opening game of the tournament on May 15. They followed that up with a 6-0 win over Italy and a 5-1 victory over Denmark.<\/p>\n

\"\"Czech Republic\u2019s Matyas Melovsky, left, and Canada\u2019s Morgan Rielly in action during a preliminary round game between Czech Republic and Canada at the men\u2019s ice hockey world championship in Fribourg, Switzerland, Tuesday May 26, 2026. (Anthony Anex\/Keystone via AP)<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s lone blemish came on May 21 when they needed overtime to defeat Norway 6-5 \u2013 a game that saw the Canadians rally back from multiple deficits and had Mark Scheifele score the winner. Overtime wins are only worth two points while regulation victories earn three.<\/p>\n

The scare against the Norwegians didn\u2019t seem to harm the Canadians as they won their final three games: 3-1 over Slovenia, 5-1 over Slovakia and 3-2 over Czechia.<\/p>\n

Team Canada is looking to win their first medal at men\u2019s worlds since 2023 when they captured gold. The Canadians finished fifth at last year\u2019s tournament after falling to Denmark in the quarterfinals. The year prior, Canada lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game.<\/p>\n

\"\"Canada\u2019s Evan Bouchard, left, and Czech Republic\u2019s Matej Blumel in action during a preliminary round game between Czech Republic and Canada at the men\u2019s ice hockey world championship in Fribourg, Switzerland, Tuesday May 26, 2026. (Anthony Anex\/Keystone via AP)<\/p>\n

While the last couple years have not gone Canada\u2019s way, it\u2019s been a strong decade for the country at the tournament. Canada has played in the gold medal game seven times since 2015 and, prior to last year\u2019s quarterfinal loss, had qualified for the semifinals every year since then.<\/p>\n

Canada will now face an American squad that finished 4-3-0 in the preliminary round. The United States are defending gold medalists having won their first world title since 1960 last year.<\/p>\n

The semifinals will take place Saturday, May 30 while the gold and bronze medal matches will be held on Sunday, May 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Anex\/Keystone via AP May 26, 2026 It\u2019ll be a rematch of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,2023,10860,1564,16197,2019],"class_list":["post-62196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-iihf","tag-iihf-world-championship","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-team-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}