Live blog: Canada vs. Finland Olympics semifinal 

MILAN – Welcome to the men’s hockey semifinals at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

Team Canada is looking to win gold for the third straight time at Olympics featuring NHL players. Team Finland is looking to win its second straight gold after winning the 2022 Beijing Olympics without NHL players.

After three of the four quarterfinal games went to overtime on Wednesday, it’s expected to be a wild and crazy day in Italy.

NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price is inside the arena to provide all the sights, sounds and action from Canada and Finland with our live blog.

11:08 a.m. ET

Finland strikes first, scoring on the power play right off the face-off. Sebastian Aho wins the face-off back to Mikko Rantanen, who fires it over the glove of Jordan Binnington.

The penalty comes after some Panther-on-Panther antics.

Canada foward Sam Bennett comes through the middle, gets a shot on goal and then pretty much tackles Niko Mikkola, his Florida teammate and they both crash into goalie Juuse Saros. He takes a goalie interference penalty.

Here is what Bennett said yesterday about playing his three Florida teammates who are Finns

"I think they all understand how important this is, how much we want this. I mean, they are not going to take it personal or anything. You're out there going to win a hockey game and you're doing whatever it takes.

11:04 a.m. ET

Canada kills off the too-many men penalty and it's stil 0-0 with 8 minutes left in first.

The Fins are outshooting Canada, 7-3. As the kids would say, it's been a minute since Canada had a shot on goal.

They just did a Guess Who I Am quiz on the big board and they played "Who Are You?" by the Who. I wonder how many people here know that as the theme song to CSI instead of an all-time classic rocker.

Yes, I'm old. I know.

One player who has certainly made his presence known early is Canada defenseman Travis Sanheim. He just seems to have a little extra jump today. With Crosby out, everyone on the Canada roster has to step up.

10:55 p.m. ET

The "Let's Go Canada" chant is going through the arena, but it's Finland with the first power play after Canada had too many men on the ice.

It's been a little more wide open than most of us expected. Each team has had decent scoring chances, with each goalie holding his own.

Lots of hitting, lots of heavy forechecking.

If anyone thought the Finns would be intimidated or cautious against Canada, they were mistaken.

There is a man dressed as Santa Claus here and he's cheering on Finland.

Not sure if that's a good sign for Canada to have Santa rooting against you.

I would say there are more red Canada jerseys in the stands the blue Finnish jerseys, but it's been equally loud.

10:45 p.m. ET

We have our first big save of the game with Juuse Saros of Finland robbing Macklin Celebrini in close.

Tom Wilson has made his presesce felt here early, delivering a big hit on Nikolas Mantinpalo behind the Finland goal early in the first. A few minutes later, Rasmus Ristolainen returned the favor, drilling Wilson.

Then we had some Hurricane-on-Hurricane hiting, with Seth Jarvis drilling Carolina teammate Sebastian Aho.

These teams are fired up early here.

"Kickstart My Heart" by the Crue played just before puckdrop, as if anyone needs anything to get them going today.

Speaking of which, I had my first espresso today. I feel like I had 6 Jolt Colas and Red Bull.

By the way, their were 5 Florida Panthers on the ice to start the game - Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand for Canada and Niko Mikkola, Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell for Finland.

10:40 p.m ET

Puck dropeth.

The game has started. One thing different here at the Olympics is they don't play the anthems for each country, so once the players come out the game starts pretty quickly.

It's ok, because this place is going to be absolutely loud tonihgt, especially with the in-arena host getting people to yell.

I don't think they are going to need any prompting.

While I was at the Olympic store getting swag from some guys back in the office, I ran into a family from Arizona who had gotten tickets to these semifinals a year ago and were finally here for it.

On the bus here, I saw a guy wearing these Finland sneakers.

10:30 a.m. ET

Warmups are over and we are just about 10 minutes from puck drop.

Santaguilia Arena is going to be jammed packed with fans for this one.

This place is still buzzing from the US women’s OT win against Canada last night in the gold medal game.

Just think about what has happened in this building the past two days of game play.

Three overtime elimination games, all with the tying goal being scored late in regulation.

In two of the three cases, the team that scored the last regulation goal won in OT, with the exception of Sweden against the United States.

9:50 a.m. ET

We’re now 45 minutes away from puck drop for the first of the two semifinals.

Here are the full lineups for this game, again, with Sidney Crosby out.

I mentioned earlier that it’s dark up in the press box, it’s also very, very cold.

Again, I know it’s nothing like you fine folks on the East coach are going through, but it’s a bit chilly in here. The weather outside today was like a spring day, so naturally we have to spend most of the day inside. But we’d rather be inside watching what should be two epic games. So much on the line here. As I type this, “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers plays in the arena. The DJ and organist and the entire game presentation folks have done an amazing job here.

Here are some great nuggets from our NHL Stats crew for Canada-Finland

Connor McDavid (2 goals, nine assists) needs one point to establish a new record for most points in a single Olympics involving NHL players. He is currently tied with Teemu Selanne (11 in 2006 w/ FIN) and Saku Koivu (11 in 2006 w/ FIN).

Macklin Celebrini (five goals) needs one goal to surpass Jarome Iginla (5 in 2010) for the most goals by a Canadian in a single Olympics featuring NHL players.

The two highest-scoring teams of the Olympics will go head-to-head when Team Canada (24 goals; 1st) takes on Team Finland (19 goals; 2nd). There are 15 Finnish players with multiple points during the tournament, tied with Team USA for tops among all countries, compared to Team Canada’s 12 skaters.

Both Team Finland and Team Canada earned come-from-behind victories in their quarterfinal matchups. Either team can become the first to record consecutive comeback wins in the playoffs of an Olympics featuring NHL participation, and third team to do so in any round, following Team Switzerland (Feb. 20-23, 2010) and Team Russia (Feb. 15-16, 1998).

Team Canada looks to earn its fourth consecutive win in five semifinal appearances in Olympics with NHL participation:

9:38 a.m. ET

We are an hour away from puck drop for the first of two Olympic semifinals here in Milan.

It’s absolutely pitch dark in this place, so we not only had to get here to get seats in the press box, we had to secure the one lamp on press row so Shawn Roarke, who is doing the running recap of this game, can see what’s he’s typing (insert joke here).

The organist here is on an absolute roll, but about an hour ago there was nobody here. His name is Dieter Ruhle and he is the organist for the LA Kings and LA Dodgers.

My running tally of the organist’s song he’s played (the one’s I can recognize)

Karma Chameleon, Culture Club

Love Removal Machine, Cult

Fly Me to the Moon, Frank Sinatra

Enjoy the Silence, by Depeche Mode

Right Now, Van Halen

A bit earlier, the DJ played a techno version of Kiss’ “I Was Made for Loving You,” which is called “I Was Made” by Vinai and LePedre. If you see NHL.com dayside chief Brian Compton looking angry today, you’ll know why. He is a 5-star general in the Kiss Army and versions like that do not sit well with him.

9:20 a.m. ET

The Sidney Crosby news is official. He will not play for Canada today in the semifinal against Finland. It’s a big blow for Canada, but maybe he will be able to play on Sunday if they reach the gold medal game.

You have to figure it has to be a significant injury to keep him out of huge game like this.

Look for Connor McDavid to be the captain for Canada. I think he can handle it.

9 a.m. ET

OK, this day is off to an amazing start already. About two hours before puck drop, the organist, Dieter Ruhle, opened things up by playing his rendition of “Karma Chamelon” by Culture Club. Holy hell. He’s the organist for the LA Kings and LA Dodgers. Dude is amazing.

We’re about an 90 minutes from puck drop and the big question is if Sidney Crosby will play for Canada. The Team Canada captain was injured in the second period of a 4-3 overtime win against Team Czechia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. He left the game and did not return and did not participate in Canada's optional practice Thursday.

Word is he skated on his own this morning, but not sure what that means.

We shall find out soon.

Interesting note: If he cannot play, Canada has to designate another player to wear the C for captain. I would think it would be Connor McDavid, but who knows?

Whether Sid players or not, we expect this place to be absolutely bonkers today. It’s a medium-sized arena and it’s really, really loud.