MILAN — An ugly scene in the third period marred an otherwise spirited, energetic Olympic men’s hockey game between Canada and Switzerland on Friday at Santagiulia Arena.
Swiss winger Kevin Fiala, who plays in the NHL for the Los Angeles Kings, got his left leg tangled up behind one of the skates of Canada’s Tom Wilson with just over two minutes to play in a game Canada eventually won 5-1.
Both players fell to the ice. Wilson, just about the heaviest man in the contest, appeared to land on Fiala’s leg as it buckled beneath him.
Fiala was immediately in obvious pain and Swiss medics were on the ice quickly to treat him Paramedics then arrived with a stretcher.
Both teams stood nearby with serious concern as the star winger was carted from the ice.
“We haven’t seen him yet,” Swiss head coach Patrick Fischer said after the game. “I think he went to the hospital. Obviously, it doesn’t look very good. Tough, tough, tough moment for Kevin and the whole team, obviously.”
Kevin Fiala of Team Switzerland is treated by emergency medial staff in the third period of his teams hockey game against Canada on Feb. 13, 2026 in Milan.
Wilson said at the time he didn’t think anything serious had happened but then realized Fiala had not gotten up off the ice.
“It happens a lot every night,” he said. “Just unlucky. He’s a competitor, obviously. At this point, it’s the Olympic Games and I feel terrible that he may not be able to keep playing and just sending his family and him my best. You never want to see a guy go down in a tournament like this, especially. It sucks for the country, for their team, and just wishing him a quick recovery.”
“He’s a tough kid,” Wilson added. “He didn’t say anything, he didn’t scream, he didn’t really say any emotion at all. I didn’t know how serious it was. And then when we watched the replay, you could see his foot kind of got caught in the ice.”
Given the stress that Fiala’s lower leg appeared to be under as he fell to the ice and then the way his left leg lay on the ice, there is real concern that the winger may have broken his leg, a devastating outcome for a highly skilled winger personally, and for his NHL team, who just traded for another star winger in Artemi Panarin just before the Olympic break.
If he has broken his leg, this will be the second time in his career Fiala has suffered a serious leg injury: in 2017 he broke his left femur during a playoff game.