A fantastic finish: Six Stars have chance to win medal as Olympics reach final round

One of the greatest hockey tournaments in history has its final act set in stone.

After Team Canada made a historic comeback to beat Team Finland on Friday, Team USA muscled past Team Slovakia to set up a Gold Medal game for the ages. Team USA will play Team Canada in a game that will be televised in the Dallas area at 7:10 a.m. on Sunday morning. While that’s not quite the prime-time spotlight for a normal viewing day, it seems perfect for this event.

Bottom line, people will wake up early because the game is monumental.

Canada had to beat Czechia in overtime in the quarterfinals, while USA had to go to OT to get past Sweden, so it didn’t seem that strange that Finland had a 2-0 lead on Canada and appeared poised for an upset in the semifinals. But the deep and talented Canadian team rallied back and won in regulation on a Nathan MacKinnon goal with 30 seconds left.

"You can't just be a team that plays well with the lead, you have to be able to battle through adversity, tough moments," Canada forward Sam Bennett said. "We showed that. We played harder when we got down. We pushed the whole game, right to the very end. It just shows how bad this team wants it. It was great to see."

The game was especially frustrating for Finland, which featured four current Dallas Stars players in Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen, as well as two former Dallas players in Mikael Granlund and Joel Kiviranta. Finland’s GM is former Stars great Jere Lehtinen, who has his no. 26 retired in franchise lore.

Rantanen scored on a power play goal to give Finland a 1-0 lead and then Erik Haula scored shorthanded to make it 2-0. But Canada roared back and started controlling possession, eventually wearing down Suomi.

“I think we tried [to create offense], but when you defend like 25, 30 seconds in your ‘D’ zone, there’s not one guy in the world who can go offense after that,” Rantanen told reporters in Italy. “So then we were dumping it in a lot and changing, and then they were just coming at us, so that was kind of the second period.”

Canada scored on a Sam Bennett redirection to make it 2-1 in the second period, and then Shea Theodore scored midway through the third period to tie things up.

The Theodore goal had some controversy as Canada forward Brad Marchand was in the crease and fell on Finnish goalie Juuse Saros. Saros was able to regain his feet, but still felt he was obstructed on the play. However, officials did not call goaltender interference and the Finns didn’t want to challenge because a failed challenge would lead to a power play for Team Canada.

Canada eventually worked to get a power play late in the game and MacKinnon scored to make it 3-2 in the final minute. Finland challenged that the play was offside, but the review was inconclusive.

Canada head coach Jon Cooper said his team had to work hard to beat Saros, who stopped 36 shots.

"The way he tracks pucks and the way he moves, I don’t know if there’s a goalie in the league that does it better than he does," Cooper said. "So you’re down 2-0, and you’re thinking, okay, we’ve got to pierce Finland’s stout defense, but honestly the big worry for me is how are we going to get to Saros."

The Stars players were all huge for Finland and will have a chance to win a bronze medal if they can beat Slovakia on Saturday afternoon. Stars defenseman Thomas Harley will have a chance to win Gold with Canada. He has been one of their top contributors over the last two weeks.

Jake Oettinger will also have a chance to win gold with Team USA. He has yet to play in a game, but he served as a backup in each of the last three games.

Team USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and then expanded that to 5-0 in the second before posting a 6-2 final. It was one of the few one-sided games in a tournament that has been a nail-biter for the majority of the time.

Team USA forward Auston Matthews said that the USA and Canada have established a rivalry after playing twice in the 4 Nations Face-Off last year.

"It's going to be a great game," Matthews told reporters in Italy. "I think last year you kind of saw the two games we played how tight it was and how fast and competitive both teams are. It's going to be an amazing test for us."

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.