Winter Olympics recap: US and Canada win and will square off for gold medal in men’s hockey

MILAN (AP) — The Olympic final that many hockey fans wanted is set: Canada will play the United States for the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games.

Both teams took care of business in Friday’s semifinals, though Canada needed a late goal to get past Finland 3-2. The Americans then overwhelmed Slovakia 6-2 behind Jack Hughes’ two goals and Zach Werenski’s three assists.

They’ll meet on Sunday for the title, a year after the North American rivals played two memorable games against each other at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

The U.S. men last reached the Olympic final in 2010, when they lost to Canada in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s famous golden goal. They haven’t won it all since 1980 in Lake Placid following the “ Miracle on Ice.”

Canada and the U.S. squared off in the women’s final on Thursday, when the Americans won gold with 2-1 overtime victory.

On Friday, Canada’s men advanced after Nathan MacKinnon scored the go-ahead goal with 35.2 seconds left in the third period.

The tournament favorite had trailed 2-0 before Sam Reinhart cut the deficit in the second and Shea Theodore tied it midway through the third.

Crosby did not play for Canada because of an injury. It was not immediately clear if the 38-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins star would be available Sunday.

Crosby appeared to injure his right knee in the second period of the quarterfinals against Czechia on Wednesday night.

Finland will play Slovakia in the bronze-medal game on Saturday night.

US freeskier Ferreira wins halfpipe gold

American freeskier Alex Ferreira won silver at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze four years ago in Beijing in the men’s halfpipe.

The 31-year-old Ferreira added a gold medal to his collection by winning the halfpipe final on Friday.

The Aspen, Colorado, native also delivered the United States its first gold medal in nearly two weeks of freeskiing or snowboarding at the Livigno snow park in the Italian Alps.

Dutch skaters deliver more speedskating gold

Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands won her first Olympic gold, and sixth career medal overall, by finishing first in speedskating’s 1,500 meters.

Rijpma-de Jong finished in 1 minute, 54.9 seconds, as thousands of Dutch fans roared in the stands. She was 0.06 faster than silver medalist Ragne Wiklund of Norway. Canada’s Valerie Maltais took bronze.

Earlier at these Games, Dutch women also took gold at other distances — Femke Kok in the 500 and Jutta Leerdam in the 1,000.

Later, the Netherlands added to its impressive short-track speedskating haul at these Games by winning its first men’s 5,000-meter relay at the Olympics.

Jens van ’t Wout, who skated the anchor leg, earned his third gold and fourth medal overall in Milan, while his nation earned its fifth gold and seventh medal overall in the short-track speedskating program.

Canada women stunned in curling semifinals

Sweden beat top-ranked Canada 6-3 to advance to the gold-medal game in women’s curling. The Swedes, ranked No. 12, will face Switzerland in Sunday’s final.

Sweden has won the women’s competition three times since curling returned to the Olympic program in 1998.

Switzerland beat the United States 7-4 in Friday’s other semifinal and will be aiming for its first women’s gold at the Olympics.

Canada will play the U.S. for bronze on Saturday.

In the men’s competition on Friday, Switzerland routed Norway 9-1 for the bronze medal.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics