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Canada crushes Czechia for first win at Olympic men's hockey tournament

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
|
Feb 12 2026, 6:04 pm
Canada crushes Czechia for first win at Olympic men's hockey tournament
Geoff Burke/Imagn Images

NHL superstars are officially back playing hockey at the Olympics.

And on Thursday in Milan, Canada’s stars didn’t disappoint.

Connor McDavid set the tone early with a big hit, nailing Czechia forward Lukas Sedlak during his first shift of the game.

Seconds later, he drew a penalty as Sedlak tried to retaliate against the best hockey player on the planet.

That was just his first shift, and it was a sign of things to come.

McDavid was all over the ice for Canada during his Olympic debut. He led Canada with three assists as his team completed a dominant 5-0 victory over Czechia.

Macklin Celebrini will provide an answer to future trivia questions, as he scored the first goal for Canada at the Milano Cortina Olympics, tipping home a point shot from Cale Makar with seconds left in the first period.

The last time NHLers were at the Olympics in 2014, Celebrini was seven years old.

The party didn’t end there, as Mitch Marner sauced a spectacular pass to Mark Stone for a goal. Marner went flying through the air, Bobby orr style, as Canada doubled lead in the second period.

Not to be outdone, Bo Horvat scored a beautiful goal of his own, ripping through the neutral zone with speed before deking out Czech goaltender Lukas Dostal.

Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki scored the other goals for Canada.

Jordan Binnington, despite entering the Olympics as one of the worst starting NHL goaltenders this season, finished with the shutout.

His impact was felt early on, as Czechia was nearly even with Canada in shots on goal through the first half of the game.

However, in the third period, Canada really pulled away.

For a team that entered the Olympics as gold medal favourites, they didn’t disappoint during their debut.

Everyone on Canada’s roster, aside from Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty, was making their Olympic debut on Thursday.

Really, the only blemish for Canada on Thursday was that defenceman Josh Morrissey left the game with an injury and did not return.

Travis Sanheim was the lone Canadian defender who didn’t dress for the game on Thursday. However, Canada did dress seven defencemen for this game, leaving them with seven healthy blueliners total.

Canada doesn’t have much rest before their next game, as they take on Switzerland on Friday, Feb. 13 at 3:10 p.m. ET. Switzerland won their first game of the Olympics earlier in the day, beating France 4-0.

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