{"id":5468,"date":"2026-02-14T00:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/5468\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:43:15","slug":"canada-tops-switzerland-in-olympic-mens-hockey-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/5468\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada tops Switzerland in Olympic men\u2019s hockey – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2013 Jon Cooper felt his team sagging.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite leading 2-1 late in the first period of Canada\u2019s second game at the Milan Cortina Olympics, the country\u2019s head coach decided on a nuclear option when the opportunity presented itself on a faceoff.<\/p>\n

The trio of centres, all No. 1 overall picks at the NHL draft, clicked immediately \u2014 and pushed their team to another convincing victory in men\u2019s hockey at the 2026 Games.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists each as Canada stayed perfect, and clinched top spot in Group A with Friday\u2019s 5-1 victory over Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini chipped in a goal and an assist as the third member of an outrageously talented trifecta.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhenomenal players \u2014 generational, these kids,\u201d said Cooper, whose group still has another preliminary round game to go. \u201cYou don\u2019t know how that chemistry is going to go all the time \u2026 now some guys have to play a little bit out of position. They\u2019re three guys that want the puck, need the puck, and there\u2019s only one puck.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSacrifices have to be made, but ultimately they did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sidney Crosby and Thomas Harley also scored for Canada (2-0-0-0). Logan Thompson made 24 saves.<\/p>\n

Pius Suter replied for Switzerland (1-0-1-0), which got 34 stops from Akira Schmid. Swiss forward Kevin Fiala had to be stretchered off and taken to hospital late in regulation with an apparent leg injury after a collision with Tom Wilson along the boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nothing play,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI feel terrible that he may not be able to keep playing and just sending his family and him my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadians, who have two regulation victories, six points and a plus-nine goal differential, opened their tournament with Thursday\u2019s relentless 5-0 victory over Czechia in the first Olympic game involving the country\u2019s NHLers since 2014.<\/p>\n

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Next up for Canada is a meeting with France on Sunday. The Czechs (1-0-1-0) picked up a 6-3 win over the French (0-0-2-0) in Friday\u2019s early game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re a deep team no matter how (Cooper) puts the lines,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cIt just gives us a bit of a different look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini, the youngest player in the tournament at age 19, was already playing alongside McDavid before MacKinnon swapped out with Wilson.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe two best players in the world and two legends that are in the prime of their careers,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to play with them when they\u2019re buzzing.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacKinnon said he had to adjust his game slightly moving to the wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Connor is going to attack or delay, so I\u2019m just trying to get some space,\u201d he explained. \u201cI feel like I can read most plays and most situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper indicated earlier this week two of Canada\u2019s three goaltenders \u2014 Thompson, Jordan Binnington and Darcy Kuemper \u2014 would split the first pair of games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Binnington picked up a 26-save shutout Thursday with Thompson backing up, while Kuemper dressed as the No. 2 option Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little nervous, I don\u2019t usually get that anymore,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cBut it was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Canadian defenceman Josh Morrissey, who left Thursday\u2019s victory early in the second period, didn\u2019t dress against the Swiss. Travis Sanheim took his place and skated as the seventh defenceman. The final addition to the roster after Brayden Point was left at home injured, Seth Jarvis replaced Brad Marchand up front.<\/p>\n

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Cooper said Morrissey won\u2019t play Sunday, but isn\u2019t ruled out of the event. Marchand will be back in the lineup against France.<\/p>\n

Swiss fans were in full voice ahead of puck drop as a European-heavy crowd whistled and booed the Canadians when they hit the ice ahead of puck drop for a second straight contest.<\/p>\n

McDavid, who had three assists in the opener, scored his first Olympic goal on a power play at 5:45 of the first period off a great pass from MacKinnon inside the 11,600 rink that was finished just in time for the Games.<\/p>\n

Crosby was denied with a desperation flying skate save from Schmid on a breakaway later in the period, but Canada made it 2-0 at 10:45 when Harley scored five-hole after McDavid found him off the rush.<\/p>\n

Switzerland, which topped France 4-0 in its Thursday opener, cut the deficit in half on a man advantage at 12:42 when Sven Andrighetto\u2019s point shot fell kindly to Suter.<\/p>\n

McDavid delivered a huge hit on the forecheck for a second straight game that rocked Andrea Glauser \u2014 much to the delight of a group of fans with a \u201cConnor McJesus\u201d banner \u2014 before the superstar took a big check from Timo Meier later in the period.<\/p>\n

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Cooper tweaked his lines shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs wonderful as they are with the puck, how I\u2019m grading them is on how they played without it,\u201d he said of McDavid, MacKinnon and Celebrini. \u201cYou keep doing the right things without the puck, good things are going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada killed off a penalty early in the middle period to set the stage for Celebrini to score his second goal in as many nights off a Mackinnon pass from the corner at 4:14.<\/p>\n

The plucky Swiss, whose fans tossed a couple of beer cups on the ice during some heated moments, held firm the rest of the second and had a push in the third.<\/p>\n

But Crosby put things out of reach moments later when he redirected a Mitch Marner pass at 7:28. MacKinnon rounded out the scoring at 13:03 from McDavid and Celebrini as a line that\u2019s combined for 270 points this season connected again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re up in the score, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re playing well,\u201d Cooper said of the line switch. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a whole ton of time here to see what we have. Our job is to find the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group\u2019s done pretty good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2013 Jon Cooper felt his team sagging. Despite leading 2-1 late in the first period of Canada\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4543,307,41,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-5468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-2026-olympics","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-swiss","11":"tag-switzerland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}