Olympic hockey: two overtime finals in Milan.

Milan Cortina 2026 at a glance

Both Olympic tournaments at Milan Cortina are finished. Both finals were played at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena and both went to overtime.

The NHL's return

NHL players took part in five straight Olympics from Nagano 1998 to Sochi 2014, according to NHL.com. No deal was reached for 2018, and plans for 2022 were dropped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IIHF, the NHL and the players' association, with the International Olympic Committee, finalised the agreement for Milan Cortina at IOC headquarters on 2 July 2025. The Hockey News reported that the agreement opens the door to the 2030 French Alps Games but does not guarantee NHL players will go. The 2026 men's tournament ran from 11 to 22 February 2026 on two NHL-sized rinks in Milan, and it was the only senior men's best-on-best event of the year. The best-on-best page covers the other tournaments of this kind.

Men's tournament, 2026

The United States beat Canada 2-1 in overtime on 22 February 2026, the 46th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice. NBC New York's report gives the sequence: Matt Boldy scored for the U.S. about six minutes in, Cale Makar tied it for Canada late in the second period, and Jack Hughes won it less than two minutes into 3-on-3 overtime. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 41 of 42 shots.

It was the U.S. men's third Olympic gold, after 1960 and 1980, its first since 1980 and the first it has won outside the United States. Canada, chasing a 10th gold, took its fifth silver; its last gold was in 2014.

• Quarterfinal: NBC New York names Quinn Hughes as the hero of the U.S. win over Sweden.
• Semifinals (2026): Canada beat Finland 3-2 on a Nathan MacKinnon goal in the final minute, and the United States beat Slovakia 6-2.
• Bronze (21 February 2026): Finland beat Slovakia 6-1. Erik Haula scored twice, with goals from Sebastian Aho, Joel Armia, Kaapo Kakko and Roope Hintz; Tomas Tatar scored for Slovakia. Slovakia had beaten Finland 4-1 in the preliminary round.

Women's tournament, 2026

The United States beat Canada 2-1 in overtime on 19 February 2026. The Canadian Olympic Committee's report says Kristin O'Neill scored shorthanded for Canada early in the second period. Hilary Knight tied it with 2:04 left in regulation, redirecting a Laila Edwards shot with the U.S. goalie pulled, and Megan Keller scored the winner 4:07 into 3-on-3 overtime. AP reports describe it as the U.S. women's third Olympic gold, after 1998 and 2018.

• Canada's path: 3-1 in the preliminary round, its loss a 5-0 defeat by the U.S. with Marie-Philip Poulin out injured; then 5-1 over Germany in the quarterfinal and 2-1 over Switzerland in the semifinal. Poulin scored both semifinal goals and became the all-time leading goal scorer in Olympic women's hockey. The Canadian Olympic Committee notes that Canada has won a medal at every Games that has included women's hockey: five gold and three silver.
• U.S. semifinal (16 February 2026): the U.S. beat Sweden 5-0, and Aerin Frankel became the first goaltender in Olympic women's hockey to record three shutouts at one Games. Reports differ on the scorers. The PWHL lists Cayla Barnes, Taylor Heise, Haley Scamurra, Kristen Simms and Abbey Murphy, while a search summary of NBC reports had Kendall Coyne Schofield in place of Simms.
• Bronze (19 February 2026): Switzerland beat Sweden 2-1 in overtime for its second Olympic women's medal, after bronze at Sochi 2014.

Beijing 2022

Men. Finland beat the ROC, the team of the Russian Olympic Committee, 2-1 at the National Indoor Stadium for its first Olympic men's hockey gold, which NBC described as the country's first gold in a team sport. In the semifinals the ROC beat Sweden in a shootout and Finland beat Slovakia. Slovakia's bronze was its first Olympic men's hockey medal; teenager Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice in the bronze game and led the tournament with seven goals.

Women. Canada beat the United States 3-2 for its fifth Olympic women's gold, while the U.S. took its fourth silver. Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin, with two, scored for Canada; Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel scored for the U.S., and Ann-Renee Desbiens made 38 saves. NBC Chicago reported that Poulin became the first hockey player, man or woman, to score in four Olympic gold medal games, and that Nurse's 18 points set the record for one Olympic tournament.

The rules on Olympic ice

Olympic hockey is played under IIHF rules, not NHL rules. FloHockey pointed out during the 2026 Games that IIHF rules do not allow fighting, and the IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 (Rule 46.1) gives a player who fights a major penalty plus an automatic game misconduct. The same rule book (Rule 84.6) sets overtime in a top-level gold medal game as 3-on-3 sudden death, period after period, with no shootout. Both 2026 finals were settled in 3-on-3 overtime, though they were played before the 2026/27 edition was issued in June 2026, and we have not compared it with the edition in force at the time. The governing bodies page explains who writes which rules.

How it started

Ice hockey first appeared at the Olympics at the Antwerp Summer Games of 1920. NHL.com says the rink's managers required hockey on the programme if figure skating was to use the ice. Canada, represented by the Winnipeg Falcons, beat Sweden 12-1 in the final on 26 April 1920; the United States took silver and Czechoslovakia bronze. Women's hockey became an Olympic medal sport at Nagano 1998, where, according to the IIHF, the United States beat Canada 3-1 for the first title. The longer story is on international hockey history and women's hockey history.