MILAN — For Team Finland and Team Slovakia, there actually is a tomorrow.
Each team lost in the semifinals of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 men’s ice hockey tournament on Friday, but unlike the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where losing a make-or-break game means the end of the season, each lived to see another day.
That will be Saturday, when the Finns and Slovaks dust themselves off and meet in the bronze medal game (2:40 p.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Tele, CBC Gem, CBC [JIP]).
Finland lost a heartbreaker to Canada, blowing a 2-0 lead and falling on Nathan MacKinnon’s power-play goal with 35.2 seconds left in regulation. Team Slovakia was never that close, falling 6-2 to the United States.
“It’s not a good feeling right now,” Finland forward Kaapo Kakko said. “But it’s still a big game tomorrow. And it’s something you still want to win.”
For three members of Team Finland, not only is it a bad feeling, it’s an unfamiliar one.
This is the first time since the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs that forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell and defenseman Niko Mikkola have experienced the feeling of losing an elimination game. All three have been part of back-to-back Stanley Cup championships for the Florida Panthers. Mikkola, as a member of the New York Rangers, was eliminated in the first round by the New Jersey Devils in 2023, while Lundell and Luostarinen lost in the Cup Final to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Obviously it [stinks],” Luostarinen said, “but we still have a game and just try to put all of our focus on that.”
Lundell said, “We have to turn the page and move forward.”
