For the third consecutive Paralympic Winter Games, the United States and Canada will face off for the Para ice hockey gold medal. The USA will be chasing a fifth straight and sixth overall Paralympic title, while Canada aims to halt their rival’s streak and capture a second Paralympic gold. The final is set for Sunday (15 March) at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
Canada advanced after a hard‑fought 4-2 win over China, their narrowest margin of victory at Milano Cortina 2026. Earlier in the day, the USA defeated Czechia 6-1, powered by all‑time scoring leader Declan Farmer, who recorded his fourth hat-trick in as many games at these Paralympics.
China and Czechia will meet in Sunday’s bronze‑medal game. The Chinese will look to defend the bronze they won at Beijing 2022, while the Czechs are playing for what would be their first Paralympic medal in Para ice hockey.
USA 🇺🇸 has never lost a Paralympic final. They’ll play their sixth on Sunday. 🏒🥇@milanocortina26 @Paralympics pic.twitter.com/Ak221UpnAw
— Para Ice Hockey (@paraicehockey) March 13, 2026
Canada 4-2 China
A late shot from Dominic Cozzolino, deflecting off a Chinese defender, put Canada ahead with 6:07 remaining before Liam Hickey sealed the 4-2 win with 4:12 left, sending the Canadians to their third straight Paralympic final.
“It feels amazing. That’s why we came here,” Canadian captain Tyler McGregor said. “We didn’t make it easy on ourselves, but that’s what this tournament should be like. It should be tough to get to a gold‑medal game, and you should have to battle through adversity and try to find a way. Great teams have to find a way. And tonight, we did.”
McGregor scored twice in the opening period, giving the impression Canada might enjoy a calmer start than the USA had in Friday’s earlier semifinal. His first came on the power play when he found the puck in the slot with an open net. Four and a half minutes later, he doubled the lead on a play confirmed by video review: Hickey tipped the puck out of mid‑air, it slid under Chinese goaltender Wei Wang, and McGregor buried the rebound.
China cut the deficit late in the frame when Zheng Zhang converted on the power play after Yifeng Shen centred the puck. The Chinese equalised just 55 seconds into the second period with another power‑play goal, as Jintao Tian scored short side while Canadian goalie Corbin Watson slid across his crease.
The third period opened with McGregor ringing the crossbar on a shorthanded breakaway, and China nearly capitalised at the other end, hitting the post through a Hongguang Li deflection of a Zhi Lyu shot in the final seconds of their power play.
Canada finally restored the lead when Cozzolino’s shot deflected off defender Jujiang Wang and beat Wang. Hickey then wrapped the puck around the net to close out the game.
“We had a bit of penalty trouble there and, to be fair, we also had our fair share of power plays. So it was kind of back and forth,” McGregor added. “Then, come third period, we just got back to playing simple hockey. Once we started establishing our forecheck and protecting against that, we were able to generate a little bit more offence. And then it started to click for us.”
China’s Shen praised his team’s effort.
“Although we lost to Canada by a two‑point margin, each of us played extremely well, and everyone showed the level we should have. We were very close. It was a very tight game. We followed what the coach told us to do; we just had less luck.”
Wang made 17 saves for China, while Watson stopped nine for Canada.
What a battle!
Canada led 2–0, but China fought back to tie the game and pushed the semifinal to the limit. Goals from Cozzolino and Hickey in the second half of the third period finally gave Canada some breathing room.
Canada reaches its third straight Paralympic final. pic.twitter.com/x8OfMZ0bCm
— Para Ice Hockey (@paraicehockey) March 13, 2026
USA 6-1 Czechia
Team USA is one game away from their fifth consecutive and sixth overall Paralympic Winter Games gold after defeating Czechia 6-1 on Friday (13 March) at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
USA’s all-time Paralympic scoring leader Declan Farmer recorded his fourth hat-trick in as many games and finished with six points. David Eustace, Josh Pauls and Noah Grove added the other goals for the reigning champions in a comeback victory after Michal Geier opened the scoring for the Czechs.
The United States will now wait for the winner of the second semifinal between Canada and China, while Czechia will play for their first-ever Paralympic medal in Sunday’s bronze-medal game (15).
“Everyone, before the tournament, put us and Canada into it, but we have to be the ones to go out there and earn it. It’s an incredible feeling to play for gold,” said Farmer, who praised the opponents for their hard-fought win.
“They have a great goaltender in Patrick [Sedlacek]. Defensively, on the penalty kill, they’re definitely playing a little bit more condensed than they usually did, so it was a bit to get used to.
“Our group did a good job of just sticking with our process and eventually getting rewarded with some goals.”
USA forward Eustace added:
“The Czech team pushed us very hard. They played very well defensively. They came out hitting hard. But we knew that it was going to be that way, we just had to capitalise on it, and we finished it off. “
“We just got the puck in deep. We just kept moving it across the road. We kept trying to push it. We just kept pushing them, kept shooting the puck, and it eventually went in.”
Czech captain said his team played against “the best in the world” at Milano Santagiulia.
“We are feeling good. The opponents showed their quality, and they are, deservedly, the best in the world.
“The first period was not bad for us in terms of defence but, unfortunately, afterwards they broke through and showed their strength.”
🇺🇸 @usahockey is once again heading to the PARALYMPIC FINAL!
Czechia opened the scoring but didn’t hold the lead for long. USA responded before the end of the first period, and scoring leader Declan Farmer netted three in the semifinal.
Great hockey! pic.twitter.com/yTqQjbRtW4
— Para Ice Hockey (@paraicehockey) March 13, 2026
Czech goaltender Martin Sedlacek made 35 saves to keep his team in contention, with Czechia spending long stretches clogging the crease and blocking shooting lanes. They killed an early USA power play and then capitalised on their own man advantage when Pavel Kubes spotted Geier breaking behind the USA defence on the weak side, sending him in alone to score 5:08 into the game.
USA responded quickly. Travis Dodson carried the puck toward the Czech net and fed Eustace, whose shot was stopped by Sedlacek. Farmer pounced on the rebound and lifted it into the net for his 12th goal and 19th point of Milano Cortina 2026, breaking the Paralympic single‑tournament records for both most goals and most points.
Eustace and Farmer took control in the middle frame, combining for two goals in 19 seconds to put USA up 3-1. First, Eustace squeezed a shot inside the far post at 4:59, with Farmer assisting. Moments later, Eustace sent a cross‑crease pass to Farmer, who hammered it in. By the second intermission, the line of Farmer, Eustace and Dodson had produced all USA points.
Pauls ended Czechia’s hopes early in the third period. After a setup from Farmer and Noah Grove, the USA captain waited out Sedlacek and slid a low shot under the goaltender’s pad at the left post. Farmer completed his hat-trick two and a half minutes later, and Grove closed the scoring, with Brody Roybal assisting on both plays – first alongside Pauls, then together with Farmer.
USA goaltender Griffin Lamarre stopped four of five shots in the semifinal win.
The United States have never lost a Paralympic Winter Games final and took gold at Salt Lake 2002, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
