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Olympic Hockey Recap: Canucks’ Hronek & Kämpf find scoresheet in Czechia’s 6-3 win; Celebrini scores in Canada’s 5-1 victory
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Photo credit: © Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Tyson Cole
Feb 13, 2026, 20:24 EST
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It was an action-packed Day 3 of the Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament. Let’s not waste anytime.
Let’s not waste anytime.

Finland vs. Sweden

Sweden looked to have more jump to start this game, with a pair of odd-man rushes and an early power play opportunity. But Juuse Saros was the Finns’ best player, and stopped all four early chances before the Finns got on the board.
GOAL: Nikolas Matinpalo – Assists: Olli Maatta and Kaapo Kakko – 1-0 Finland
Anton Lundell dumps the puck in for Kaapo Kakko to chop it back to Olli Maatta along the right wing wall. Much like Juraj Slafkovsky did against Finland in the opening game of the tournament, Maatta cuts off the boards and into the centre circle, but gets the stick poked off his stick. The puck perfectly lands on Nikolas Matinpalo’s stick, who wheels back, winds up, and fires a shot shortside, post and in to give his nation the lead.
Saros continued to keep his country in the competition. Making another handful of great saves before his team went back on the offence with a power play.
GOAL: Anton Lundell – Assists: Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola – 2-0 Finland
Seconds after the power play expired, Eetu Luostarinen shimmied around his Florida Panther teammate, Gustav Forsling, and found another Panther teammate, Anton Lundell, at the net front to extend the Finns’ lead to two.
Now into the second period, a Mikko Rantanen penalty sent the Swedes to the power play.
GOAL: Rasmus Dahlin – Assists: William Nylander and Lucas Raymond – 2-1 Finland
William Nylander danced up and down the left wall before skating to the goalline, where he sauced a far backhand pass to Rasmus Dahlin at the point for a bar-down howitzer to bring the Swedes to within one.
A big talking point for the Swedes in this game was their special teams. In total, they saw seven power play opportunities and only converted on the one above. But they walk out even on aggregate, after the Finns capitalized shorthanded.
GOAL: Joel Armia – Assists: Erik Haula and Esa Lindell – 3-1 Finland
Joel Armia dumps the puck down the ice; it lands on net, and Filip Gustavsson shovels it over to the corner. Erik Haula is first on the puck and ties it up along the boards. With three Swedes digging away, the puck trickles through to Armia, leaving him uncontested with Gustavsson. With the flick of the wrist, the Finn lifts it past the Swede to regain the two-goal lead.
The rest of the game was all about the Finns protecting their lead and trusting their goaltender, and good thing they did. Saros stopped the remaining 21 shots he faced – including 17 in the final period – before Mikko Rantanen buried an empty-netter and solidified the victory for the Finns.
GOAL: Mikko Rantanen – Assists: Mikael Granlund and Roope Hintz – 4-1 Finland Final.
Here are the final ice times of this contest:
Daily Faceoff’s Finnish standout players: Juuse Saros, Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen, Joel Armia, and Anton Lundell.
Daily Faceoff’s Swedish standout players: Rasmus Dahlin and Lucas Raymond.

France vs. Czechia

We start this game off with an early too-many-men penalty from the French. And the Czechs make them pay.
GOAL: Martin Necas – Assists: David Pastrnak and Filip Hronek – 1-0 Czechia
Canucks’ Filip Hronek picks up the easiest second assist of his Olympic career as he leaves it for Pastrnak at the top of the zone, who dances around and finds Necas on the far side for a one-time goal.
Following the goal, the Czech’s continued to dominate territorially. It seemed like only a matter of time until they would double their lead:
GOAL: Michal Kempny – Assists: Matej Stransky and Radek Faksa – 2-0 Czechia
Stransky wheeled around the back of the net before finding Kempny at the point. With one of the French forwards without a stick, Kempny took advantage of the open ice, wheeled into the high slot, and fired a post-and-in.
Fast forward to the second period, where things got a little crazy for France.
GOAL: Louis Boudon from Stephane Da Costa and Yohann Auvitu – 2-1 Czechia
Without much Czech pressure, Da Costa stick handles on the right wall, dissecting the perfect passing lane at the net front. He attempts to find the trailer on the back door, but the puck takes a funny bounce, and Boudon fires France’s first goal of the tournament early on the power play.
Minutes later, another one, from the same guy.
GOAL: Louis Boudon from Charles Bertrand – 2-2 tie
Necas’ cross-ice pass to Hronek gets blocked, springing the French on a two-on-one. Kempny goes to the puck carrier; Necas can’t catch up to Boudon, who goes upstairs on Dan Vladar to tie the game up at two.
But the French weren’t done there.
GOAL: Hugo Gallet from Charles Bertrand and Louis Boudon – 3-2 France
Boudon, who was all over the scoresheet, wins the puck battle along the boards for Bertsrand to corral. Although he missed the pass to his original target, Gallet was pinching up in the zone, grabbed the puck and snapped it behind Vladar on France’s very next shot.
Three goals in under five minutes for France.
Now feeling more threatened than ever, the Czech’s stepped on the gas.
GOAL: David Pastrnak – Assists: Ondrej Palat and Michal Kempny – 3-3 tie
After Palat sends his one-time shot wide, Kempny picks up the puck in the corner and finds Pastrnak behind the net. Pastrnak’s sneaky wrap-around gets stopped, but the Boston Bruin follows up his own rebound and pots his first Olympic goal.
The next goal was…shocking.
GOAL: Matej Stransky – Assists: Radek Faksa and Filip Hronek – 4-3 Czechia
With the French on the power play, the Czech’s held the offensive zone before Radim Simek slapped a pass back to Hronek in the Czechs’ defensive end. Hronek makes a heads-up play, notices that two French forwards are forechecking, while the other three are changing, and fires a slap-pass to the French blueline, springing the Czech’s on a shorthanded 3-on-0.
The goalie stood no chance.
After what was likely the best period in French Men’s Olympic Hockey history, they went into the second break trailing by one. And that Czech momentum rolled over to the third period.
GOAL: Filip Chlapik – Assists: Martin Necas and David Kämpf – 5-3 Czechia
Canucks’ Kämpf enters the zone and drop-passes the puck to Necas, who rips a heavy shot on net. In fact, too heavy for Neckarto keep in his glove, leaving an easy crease tap-in for Chlapik – who was making his Olympic debut.
And the Czech Captain would put a bow on this game just 40 seconds later.
GOAL: Roman Cervenka – Assists: Lukas Sedlak and David Spacek – 6-3 Czechia Final.
Spacek bodies off a French forechecker along the wall, allowing him to send the outlet pass to Sedlak and spring Cervenka on a breakaway from the top of the zone. The French defender does a great job of catching up; however, Cervenka takes the puck to his backhand and fires a nasty shot off the short-side post-and-in.
Here are the final ice times of this contest:
Daily Faceoff’s French standout players: Martin Neckar, Hugo Gallet, and Louis Boudon.
Daily Faceoff’s Czech standout players: Michal Kempny, Radek Faksa, David Pastrnak, and Martin Necas.

Switzerland vs. Canada

Shea Theodore gives the Swiss a jump scare early when he fires a floating wrister on net that goes past Akira Schmid, and rings off the post.
Seconds later, Switzerland takes advantage of a pinching Colton Parayko and goes in on a three-on-one. Theodore pressures the puck carrier, who saucers a pass over to Nino Neiderreiter, who can’t deke out Logan Thompson. Who would have thought his biggest save of the game came on his first of the night?
Not capitalizing on your scoring chances like these is eventually going to cost you when you’re playing Team Canada – especially when you take a penalty.
GOAL: Connor McDavid – Assists: Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar – 1-0 Canada
There’s really not a lot to break down here. You just kind of expect these things when this Canadian power play goes to work. They got their work done in less than 20 seconds.
Following the goal, Mitch Marner makes a fantastic goaltender-like block to intercept the puck and spring Sidney Crosby on a breakaway. Had it not been for a miraculous second effort by Schmid to scorpion-kick out his left leg, the Canadians would have been up two less than seven minutes into the game.
However, they would find that two-goal lead four minutes later.
GOAL: Thomas Harley – Assists: Connor McDavid and Tom Wilson – 2-0 Canada
Entering the zone off the rush, Tom Wilson dropped the puck back to McDavid, who finds a trailing Thomas Harley, who’s left all alone at the hashmarks with nobody but the goaltender in front of him. Harley makes no mistake and beats Schmid five-hole.
On the ensuing faceoff, former Canuck Bo Horvat takes a high-sticking penalty on fellow former Canuck Pius Suter, to which he made the Canadians pay.
GOAL: Pius Suter – Assists: Sven Andrighetto and Dean Kukan – 2-1 Canada
Andrighetto blasts one-time feed from Kukan on net. Thompson gets a glove on the puck, but the shot had too much heat for him to maintain possession. Left all alone at the net front, Suter, who drew the penalty, capitalizes on the power play.
The physicality started to pick up here. Now NHL power forward Connor McDavid lands his second big hit of the tournament; this time, his victim was Andrea Glauser. Timo Meier took that personally as he got his revenge on McDavid and then bulldozed Sam Reinhart all in the same shift.
With only a one-goal lead to this point, Head Coach Jon Cooper decided to get creative with his lines, plucking Nathan MacKinnon off the second line and placing him on the wing with McDavid and Celebrini. And, it didn’t take long for that to pay off.
GOAL: Macklin Celebrini – Assists: Nathan MacKinnon – 3-1 Canada
After their first scoring chance of the shift, McDavid tries to saucer a pass to Parayko on the far side, but his attempt is blocked. MacKinnon follows up on the loose puck and fires a quick shoulder check backhand pass to a wide open Celebrini at the left hashmarks, who rips a one-time shot up and over Schmid.
Nino Niederreiter did his best to bring his team back to within one, ringing a shot off the iron and following up on another opportunity. But at the end of the day, it was the Canadian Captain who got the insurance marker.
GOAL: Sidney Crosby – Assists: Mitch Marner and Cale Makar – 4-1 Canada
The Colorado Avalanche’s defence pair goes D-to-D before finding Mitch Marner in the high slot. He makes the perfect shot-pass straight to the tape of Sidney Crosby for an easy tap-in. That’s Marner’s second highlight reel assist in as many games.
But it wasn’t just the skaters who were contributing to the win; Thompson made some solid saves down the stretch and is certainly going to make it difficult for the Canadian coaching staff to find out what to do in net moving forward.
GOAL: Nathan MacKinnon – Assists: Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini – 5-1 Canada Final.
Who would have thought putting three of the top four point scorers in the NHL on the same line would work out? Colour me surprised. 270 NHL points on the same line is just bonkers.
Great forecheck from Celebrini. Great move to the net from McDavid. Great toe-drag to create the clear shooting lane from MacKinnon. Put those three together? And that’s a four-goal lead for Canada.
Unfortunately, we saw a bad injury at the tail end of this game. Kevin Fiala got tangled up with Tom Wilson along the boards and had to be stretchered off. The Swiss has since confirmed he will not be available for the remainder of the tournament – gutted for Kevin.
Here are the final ice times of this contest:
Daily Faceoff’s Canadian standout players: Thomas Harley, Nick Suzuki, Macklin Celebrini, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, and Connor McDavid.
Daily Faceoff’s Swiss standout players: Roman Josi and Pius Suter.

Canucks

Pettersson: The Swedish centre failed to find the scoresheet in 10:05 minutes of ice time, finishing with a minus-one rating and one shot on goal. With his deployment over the first two games, it does not appear that Pettersson is a pivotal part of this Swedish team.
Hronek: The Czech defenceman was the first Canuck to register a point in the tournament. He played one second shy of the 20-minute mark, yet logged the most ice time of any Czech player. He finished the game with two helpers, including the beauty slap-pass to spring the 3-on-0, and two shots on goal.
Kämpf: The Czech centreman nabbed a helper on his nation’s fifth goal of the game, and finished the contest with an even rating. After playing the most minutes of a Czech centreman in the first game, he fell to 13:21, playing the lowest of the four faceoff takers.
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