McAvoy, Bruins Players Prepare for Olympic Winter Games Semifinals 

BOSTON –– And then there were four.

The men’s hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 is entering the semifinal stage, with Team USA, Finland, Canada and Slovakia ready to battle for a spot in the gold-medal matchup.​

At the beginning of the games, eight members from the Boston Bruins organization were competing on the international stage. Now, only Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman (United States), and Henri Jokiharju and Joonas Korpisalo (Finland) remain in the fight.

Three of the four quarterfinal contests on Wednesday went to overtime, including the games that involved USA and Finland.

It was Quinn Hughes who had the game-winning goal for the United States in its 2-1 win over Sweden to clinch semifinal positioning. McAvoy has been skating with Hughes on the first pair for the entirety of the Olympics.

“I think everything [is impressive about Hughes]. If you were going to sum it up into one thing, I think you see the individual skill there at the end,” McAvoy said. “He’s the kind of guy who can go out there; you want the puck in his hands, just like that. He owns it on that whole shift, and he makes that happen out of nothing.”

McAvoy logged 19:22 of ice time against Sweden and had one shot. He was facing Bruins teammates Elias Lindholm and Hampus Lindholm on the other side.

Hampus got his first Olympic action of the tournament; defenseman Victor Hedman suffered an injury during warmups and could not play. Hampus had 15:48 of ice time, while Elias got minutes in the bottom six. It was McAvoy and Swayman in the end, though, who skated off happy.

“An unreal hockey game to be a part of,” McAvoy said. “That’s just two really good teams, and so much skill and talent out there. I’m just pumped we came out on the right side of it.”

Team USA will face Slovakia at 3:10 p.m. ET on Friday in the semifinal. Slovakia beat Germany 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.​

Finland will be in the other semifinal game, at 10:40 a.m. ET on Friday, against Canada. Jokiharju, Korpisalo and Team Finland beat Switzerland 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday to advance.

Team Czechia nearly played spoiler in its quarterfinal matchup against Canada. David Pastrnak scored on the power play to give Czechia a 2-1 lead near the end of the first period. It was Pastrnak’s second goal and fifth point of the tournament. Czechia once again took the lead, 3-2, at 52:18 of the third period, but Nick Suzuki’s tying tally and Mitch Marner’s goal in overtime earned Canada the 4-3 victory.

Dans Locmelis and Team Latvia were eliminated in the playoff round on Tuesday when they fell 5-1 to Sweden.

McAvoy, Swayman, Jokiharju and Korpisalo are all still in the running for an Olympic medal ahead of Friday’s semifinal meetings. The gold-medal game is scheduled for Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET; the bronze-medal game will be on Saturday at 2:40 p.m. ET.