WORLDS: Nurse & Canada rally late but fall in overtime to Norway in bronze-medal game

SWITZERLAND –  In their last chance to leave with a medal, Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse & Canada couldn't complete their late heroics in a historic 3-2 overtime victory for Norway in the bronze-medal game of the 2026 IIHF World Championship on Sunday.

After 57 minutes of goalless hockey from the Red & White, Robert Thomas scored twice with the net empty in the final three minutes of the third period, including with seven seconds left in regulation to force overtime, where Noah Steen scored a historic goal for Norway 3:32 into sudden death to cap off the upset at Swiss Life Arena in Zurich.

Nurse had to defend the final two-on-one when Macklin Celebrini and Mark Scheifele lost a puck battle along the boards in Norway's zone, leading to an odd-man rush that saw Nurse lay out to take away the pass before Steen beat netminder Jet Greaves under the glove to give the Norwegians their first-ever medal at the World Championships.

Nurse had six assists in 10 games for Canada.

Canada was without Evan Bouchard after he was forced out of Thursday's 4-0 quarter-final win over the United States from a dangerous check from Ryan Lindgren early in the first period, ending his tournament with a goal and five assists in six games while averaging the most ice time out of all Canadian defencemen.

Oilers GM & Executive VP of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman said on Oilers NOW with 880 CHED's Bob Stauffer on Thursday that Bouchard is doing well and is going to be fine after an impressive senior international debut for Canada at this year's Worlds.

“Obviously he’s injured, but he’s doing well," he said. "Thankfully, it’s not worse than it was, but clearly it was a terrible hit. It’s disappointing to see that happen. But, thankfully, it’s May and a long time till training camp. So I think everyone in Edmonton knows how great Bouch is. I think maybe some other teams are seeing how effective he is. He’s playing great hockey for Canada over there. So it’s unfortunate that he’s not going to be playing the remainder there. But I think he’s going to be okay.”