Lehkonen OT goal leads Finland in comeback against Switzerland in Olympic quarterfinals

MILAN -- Team Finland staged a late comeback to stun Team Switzerland 3-2 in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 at Rho Arena on Wednesday.

Artturi Lehkonen finished a breakaway at 3:23 of overtime to send Finland into the semifinals against a to-be-determined opponent on Friday.

Sebastian Aho and Miro Heiskanen scored late in the third period to force overtime. Esa Lindell had two assists and Juuse Saros made 21 saves for Finland, which advanced to the semifinals of Olympics featuring NHL players for the fifth time in six tries.

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: Switzerland-Finland

Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter scored and Leonardo Genoni made 28 saves for fifth-seeded Switzerland, which defeated Italy 3-0 in the qualifying playoff round Tuesday.

Switzerland took a 1-0 lead at 14:14 of the first, capitalizing on a mistake by Saros. The Finnish goalie went behind the net to collect the puck but his pass to defenseman Niko Mikkola was intercepted by Switzerland's Ken Jager, who fed it to Riat on the side of the net and he buried into the open goal while Saros scrambled to get back.

The Swiss made it 2-0 at 15:26 when Niederreiter, who had just jumped off the bench, took a pass from Pius Suter at the top of the left face-off circle and blasted a one-timer over the glove of Saros, who appeared to be screened by Mikkola.

WATCH: Men's Hockey Highlights from the Olympic Winter Games

Finland finally got on the board with at 13:54 of the third period when Aho fired a wrist shot past Genoni, making it a 2-1 game.

Finland looked to tie with 2:27 left in the game, but Genoni made his biggest save of the night, getting his arm in the way of a shot from Michael Granlund to keep the lead intact.

Heiskanen finally tied it with a shot a shot that went off the stick of Switzerland defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler at the front of the net.