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Canada to face US in Olympic ice hockey final
Canada and the United States set up a showdown in the men's ice hockey final at the Winter Olympics by beating Finland and Slovakia in Friday's semi-finals.
Tournament favourites Canada and the USA will face off for gold at Milan's Santagiulia Arena on Sunday, while Finland and Slovakia will battle for bronze on Saturday.
Nathan MacKinnon scored Canada's winner in the final seconds to complete a thrilling comeback from two goals down in a 3-2 win against Finland, while the Americans breezed to a 6-2 victory over the Slovaks.
"It's everything. It's the gold medal at an Olympic Games. We are very lucky to be here and it's a great opportunity. We have got to be ready," MacKinnon said.
Eyeing their record 10th Olympic title and the first since Sochi 2014, Canada outshot Finland 39-17, but it was outgoing Olympic champions Finland who were more efficient early in the game.
Mikko Rantanen gave the Finns the lead on 17 minutes with a wrist shot on a power play and Eric Haula made it 2-0 on 24 minutes with a shorthanded goal and a neat backhand finish on a break.
That was a wake-up call for Canada and Sam Reinhart brought them within a goal with just under six minutes remaining in the second period, tipping in Cale Makar's shot on a power play.
Defenseman Shea Theodore made it 2-2 at 50:34 with a slapshot after Brad Marchand had thrown Saros off with a tackle as Canada kept pushing.
MacKinnon then finished the comeback as Finnish defenseman Niko Mikkola was sin-binned for hitting him with a high stick.
"We had a lot of good opportunities, a lot of good battles to get the puck back," said MacKinnon.
"They were a little tired and in the second (period) we took over the game."
- Two goals in 19 seconds -
If the first semifinal offered a thriller, there was little doubt about the outcome of the other one as the US -- eyeing their first Olympic title since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" -- dominated Slovakia, the bronze medallists from Beijing 2022.
The US went 2-0 up after the first period as Dylan Larkin scored with a wrist shot on five minutes and Tage Thompson beat Slovak goalie Samuel Hlavaj at the near post with a power-play slapshot at 19:19.
Two goals within 19 seconds of the 33rd minute saw Hlavaj replaced by Stanislav Skorvanek -- Jack Hughes weaved his way through the Slovak defence and scored with a wrist shot and Jack Eichel offered a fine backhand finish.
Hughes then made it 5-0 with a rebound still in the second period.
The Slovaks narrowed the gap in the third period through Juraj Slafkovsky and Pavol Regenda scoring on each side of Brady Tkachuk's breakaway goal.
The ice hockey rosters at Milan-Cortina are packed with players from the National Hockey League (NHL), who are competing at the Olympic Games for the first time since 2014.
O. Petrow--BTZ
