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<\/p>\nMILAN \u2013 Sidney Crosby has yet another accolade beside his name.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Canadian hockey icon registered a goal and two assists Sunday in a 10-2 dismantling of France as the country finished with a perfect record in the preliminary round of the men\u2019s tournament at the Milan Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Crosby\u2019s three points gave him 16 for his Games career, eclipsing the national team\u2019s NHL-era record of 14 previously held by Jarome Iginla.<\/p>\n
The league went to five Olympics between 1998 and 2014. The NHL skipped the 2018 Games for financial reasons before COVID-19 shelved a planned return four years later. Canada won gold in 2002, 2010 and 2014 with its men\u2019s stars, with Crosby playing key roles in the latter two victories.<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini added a pair of goals and an assist on Sunday, while Connor McDavid and Mark Stone each scored and set up two others.<\/p>\n
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Cale Makar and Tom Wilson \u2014 both with a goal and an assist \u2014 Devon Toews, Bo Horvat and Brandon Hagel provided the rest of the offence for the Canadians (3-0-0-0), who now await the winner between Czechia and Denmark in a qualification playoff Tuesday to determine their quarterfinal opponent. Jordan Binnington had to make just 11 saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur intentions are good,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cStill areas we want to clean up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson was also ejected for fighting Pierre Crinon in the third period after the French defender delivered a forearm to the face of Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a big part of what we\u2019re all about,\u201d Canadian head coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cThese guys go through a wall for each other. It\u2019s fun to watch \u2026 I think we\u2019re used to a lot more than that happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things, but that\u2019s Willie.\u201d<\/p>\n
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McDavid\u2019s three points give him nine across nine periods in the superstar centre\u2019s Olympic debut, breaking the single Games record by a Canadian NHLer previously held by Jonathan Toews, who put up eight in seven contests back in 2010.<\/p>\n
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Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu share the overall record for points in a tournament involving NHLers with 11, which they both set at the 2006 event in Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did what we came to do,\u201d McDavid said of a game that lacked emotion until Crinon drilled MacKinnon without the puck behind France\u2019s net. \u201cWe came to win a hockey game and continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Floran Douay and Sacha Treille replied for the French (0-0-0-3). Julian Junca allowed six goals on 33 shots in two periods of work. Antoine Keller made three saves in the third. Justin Addamo had two assists.<\/p>\n
Canada, which has a plus-17 goal difference, opened the tournament with a 5-0 victory over Czechia before securing a 5-1 triumph against Switzerland to clinch first in Group A ahead of the meeting with France.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about, \u2018Are we getting better as a team?’\u201d Cooper said of his approach to Sunday. \u201c\u2018How are you playing without the puck?\u2019 I don\u2019t care about the rest of the stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to win this tournament, you better be giving up one or two goals a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Switzerland (1-1-1-0) picked up a 4-3 overtime victory against Czechia (1-0-1-1) earlier Sunday to grab second in the group.<\/p>\n
Injured defenceman Josh Morrissey (undisclosed) again sat out for Canada, while Brad Marchand was scratched for a second straight game up front, despite Cooper\u2019s assertion he would be back in against the French. The coach said Sunday the 37-year-old had been dealing with an ailment, but should be ready for the quarters.<\/p>\n
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The red-clad Canadians were on the front foot early, but France held strong before Wilson buried a rebound at 8:41.<\/p>\n
The French \u2014 with plenty of support inside Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, including chants of \u201cAllez les Bleus\u201d that rang around the 11,600-seat venue \u2014 replied just 13 seconds later when Canadian defenceman Colton Parayko turned the puck over and didn\u2019t box out Douay on a big Binnington rebound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re going to these tournaments, you\u2019re going to expect everyone\u2019s best coming out of the gates,\u201d Stone said. \u201cBut we feel like if we\u2019re playing 60 minutes, rolling over four lines, we\u2019re going to start wearing teams down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what ended up happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada, which owns the No. 1 seed in the elimination round barring a 10-goal victory for the United States against Germany later Sunday, retook the lead at 9:31 when Toews received a pass from Crosby on a 3-on-1.<\/p>\n
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France went to the man advantage late in the period, but Stone made it 3-1 when he stole the puck on the penalty kill and chipped a cheeky breakaway backhand past Junca with 3.4 seconds remaining on the clock.<\/p>\n
Makar made it 4-1 on Canada\u2019s lethal power play off a McDavid pass at 12:10 of the second. Celebrini was then hauled down on a breakaway at 17:16 and made no mistake on the ensuing penalty shot.<\/p>\n
Crosby stretched the lead to 6-1 just 19 seconds later when his attempted pass went off a French defender and slid past a helpless Junca in a period that saw his overmatched teammates register a solitary attempt on target at the other end.<\/p>\n
Keller\u2019s first shot against in the third was a McDavid breakaway, which he slid home for his ninth point.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the best teams in the world,\u201d said the French netminder. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard, but I try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treille blasted France\u2019s first effort of the period past Binnington at 1:28, but Horvat made it 8-2 at 5:14 on a rebound, Hagel scored at 10:46, and Celebrini rounded out the 10-spot on a power play at 11:47.<\/p>\n
Crinon, who was whistled for interference for that forearm to MacKinnon\u2019s earlier in the period, then dropped the gloves and wrestled with Wilson on his next shift, which resulted in both players getting ejected under International Ice Hockey Federation rules.<\/p>\n
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Sunday marked the first anniversary of Canada and the U.S. fighting three times in nine seconds at the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was an NHL-run event.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow let\u2019s just see where the chips fall,\u201d Cooper said of the quarters. \u201cSurvive and advance.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2013 Sidney Crosby has yet another accolade beside his name. The Canadian hockey icon registered a goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[192271,2000,299,36,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-767078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-2026-olympics","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116077285080383662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}