Denmark hoping to turn Worlds upset of Canada into Olympic success

Denmark already achieved what some consider its equivalent of the “Miracle on Ice” at the 2025 IIHF World Championship last May. Now, it heads to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 hoping to somehow top that.

Defeating Canada in the world championship quarterfinals was one thing, though that team had its share of NHL stars such as Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini. Pulling off a similar upset at Milano Cortina, the first Olympics to include NHL players since the 2014 Sochi Games, will require something even more special from Denmark, which plays its preliminary round opener against Germany on Feb. 12 (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, TSN).

“The win in the quarterfinals in May was incredible,” Carolina Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. “This is, obviously, going to be a little different because now you’re playing against the best of the best. We’re going to really have to play the game well and play the full 60 minutes to be able to do something good, but, of course, it’s going to be really hard.

“So, we’re going to go there and try to do our best and, hopefully, we can have some fun games.”

Simply competing at the Olympics will be significant for Denmark hockey. From a population of approximately 6 million, it has 6,110 registered hockey players and 29 indoor rinks, according to the IIHF.

Denmark has had 19 players make it to the NHL, including seven who have played in the League this season. All seven are on the Olympic roster: goalies Frederik Andersen (Hurricanes) and Mads Sogaard (Ottawa Senators) and forwards Ehlers (Hurricanes), Lars Eller (Senators), Oliver Bjorkstrand (Tampa Bay Lightning), Oscar Fisker Molgaard (Seattle Kraken) and Jonas Rondbjerg (Vegas Golden Knights).

Andersen, Ehlers, Eller and Bjorkstrand are the only players on Denmark’s roster who have played more than four NHL games this season, though.

There have been 31 players born in Denmark selected in the NHL Draft, according to NHL Stats. The most recent was Mads Kongsbak Klyvo, a forward who was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round (No. 112) of the 2025 NHL Draft.

Defenseman Poul Popiel, who was not drafted, was the first player from Denmark to play in the NHL, breaking into the League with the Boston Bruins in 1965-66.

“Getting more draft picks into the NHL, even if you don’t make it all the way, I think we’ve kind of grown in that area,” said Bjorkstrand, a 30-year-old Herning, Denmark native who was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round (No. 89) of the 2013 NHL Draft. “So, overall, I think we’re developing good players to either play in the NHL or the AHL or the top leagues in Europe. So, I think in that sense, I think we’ve taken a big step, which is positive.

“You want to see more exposure in different leagues.”

The hope is that the exposure of playing in the Olympics, coming on the heels of a fourth-place finish at the world championship (Denmark’s highest since earning promotion the top division in 2002), will spark more interest and participation in the sport in the country. This is the second time Denmark will play in the Olympics and the first including NHL players.

Ehlers recalled how, “guys were crying,” following a 2-0 victory against host Norway in the qualifying tournament for the 2022 Beijing Games that clinched Denmark’s first Olympic berth. NHL players ended up not going to Beijing, though, because of the COVID pandemic. Denmark, which was coached by Ehlers’ father Heinz at the time, finished seventh in that Olympic tournament after losing 3-1 to the Russian Olympic Committee team in the quarterfinals.

Denmark hosted its qualifying tournament for the 2026 Olympics in Ehlers’ hometown of Aalborg from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2024, and defeated Great Britain 3-1 and Japan 3-2 in overtime before clinching its spot at Milano Cortina with a 4-1 win against Norway.

“It was an early time for playoff hockey, but it was fun to win that,” said Andersen, who stopped 60 of the 64 shots he faced in the three games (3-0-0, 1.31 goals-against average .938 save percentage). “Just the excitement and buzz in the city during that weekend was cool, so to come through and punch that ticket was fun.”

Eller, who had four points (two goals, two assists) in the tournament, remembers experiencing a combination of pride, joy and relief in the aftermath of the victory against Norway. He experienced similar when he became the first player from Denmark to win the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018, scoring the Cup-winning goal in the clinching 4-3 victory against Vegas in Game 5.

Eller noted that the celebration after winning the Cup went on much longer, “so winning the Stanley Cup is another level,” but earning Denmark’s spot in its first best-on-best Olympics was still a feeling of great achievement.

“I remember watching the Olympics on TV as a kid,” said Eller, a 36-year-old Rodovre native who is the only player from Denmark to play 1,000 NHL games (1,159). “I remember the first time I watched was in (Nagano) Japan in 1998 and I watched every other Olympics after that and now I finally get to play in one myself and it’s going to be all the best of the best representing their national teams.”

The level of competition will be step up from the world championship, when the participating countries don’t have many of their best players available because they are playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Canada’s lineup for the world championship quarterfinal was almost entirely made up of NHL players, though, with the exception being forward Porter Martone, who was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers with the No. 6 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and is playing at Michigan State this season.

Conversely, Ehlers was on the lone NHL player in Denmark’s lineup for its 2-1 victory that day in Herning.

“That game was insane,” said Ehlers, who scored the tying goal with 2:17 remaining before Nick Oleson scored the winner with 49 seconds left. “You play at home in front of Denmark, in front of family and friends and you’re able to beat Canada who has the best player in the League right now on that team, MacKinnon, and Crosby was the best player in the League for years. We were playing against a pretty good team, so to be able to win that game, that’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced in hockey.”

Drawing parallels to the United States’ upset of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, it was dubbed by some as the “Danish Miracle on Ice.” Denmark also defeated Canada 3-2 in the 2022 IIHF World Championship, but that game was in the preliminary round, Canada’s lineup was not nearly as star-studded and Denmark did not advance past group play in that tournament.

Although Denmark was unable to follow up the quarterfinal victory last year by winning a medal -- it lost 7-0 to Switzerland in the semifinals and Sweden 6-2 in third-place game -- it was still a watershed moment for hockey in the country. Ehlers, who turns 30 on Feb. 14, has mixed feelings about whether it qualifies as miracle, though.

“We have four players in the NHL and only one was playing in that game, so in that sense, sure, you can call it a miracle,” said Ehlers, who is Denmark’s all-time leader in NHL goals (239), assists (324) and points (563) in 731 games. “On the other hand, we played the game that we needed to play to give ourselves a chance. Up until they scored, they had the puck the most. They were skating around with it, but we kept them on the outside and let them do their thing and the one time they got a shot in the slot they scored.

“I think the second half of that game we started taking over a little bit.”

The odds will be stacked even higher against Denmark at the Olympics. Tournament favorites such as Canada, the U.S. and Sweden have rosters made up completely of NHL players. Finland has one player from outside the NHL.

Although 18 of Denmark’s 25 players play professionally in Europe, five of them previously played in the NHL: forwards Nicklas Jensen (New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks), Alexander True (San Jose Sharks, Kraken), Patrick Russell (Edmonton Oilers), Joachim Blichfeld (Sharks) and defenseman Oliver Lauridsen (Flyers).

And, perhaps, the ones who haven’t played in North America will be able to take the NHL players by surprise.

“The Canadian team and the U.S. and even some of the better European teams that are teams that are full of NHL players probably won’t have a lot of knowledge and scouting on a lot of our players that play in Europe on a daily basis,” Eller said. “All of those guys want to show what they can do and prove themselves against the best and they’re going to be fired up for those games. The Danish team, we’ve always been a very good team with guys that are willing to sacrifice for each other and sacrifice themselves for the team and play the right way and lay their bodies on the line.

“That’s what has gotten us good results like they did last year against Canada.”

At the Olympics, Denmark will be in Group C with Germany, Latvia and the U.S. The winner of each of the three groups and the second-place team with the best record will earn byes to the quarterfinals. The other eight teams will play in the qualification playoff round with the four winners advancing to the quarterfinals.

“Obviously, the U.S. is a huge favorite in that group,” said Andersen, a 36-year-old Herning native. “So, the other three teams are kind of left to battle for second place and see what that seeding that gives us in that do-or-die game. I think you just try to leave it all out there for every game.”

If Denmark can somehow get a bye or at least play well enough in group play to set up a favorable matchup in the qualification playoff round, maybe it can reach the quarterfinals and have a chance to knock off one of the favorites. It won’t be easy, but upsetting Canada at the world championship provided an example that it is possible.

“It’s just going in with the right attitude and just see what happens,” Bjorkstrand said. “We, obviously, know for us to even be close to winning the game like that, they probably can’t play their best game, and we have to play the best game of our lives. We know it’s going to be that type of game, but we’re going to go in and try to win every game, regardless.”

Winning a medal might seem like an unrealistic goal, so the players from Denmark aren’t focusing on that. Looking bigger picture, they hope playing in the Olympics will be an opportunity to make a lifetime memory that could inspire future generations in their homeland.

“For us players, to get to be on the stage of the Olympics is, for me at least, a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and maybe for some other guys too,” Eller said. “So, that in itself makes it special. If we really have to go deep on it, you would hope that it helps lift up the awareness and the popularity of hockey back home and there will be more rinks built and it leads to more kids playing hockey because they want to be like their idols that they watch on TV.

“That’s kind of what the dream scenario would be.”