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2026 mwc can fin matchup

Men’s Worlds Preview: Canada vs. Finland

Saturday, May 30 | 2 p.m. ET | Zurich, Switzerland | Semifinal

Shannon Coulter
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May 29, 2026
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It’s Semifinal Saturday as Canada’s National Men’s Team faces Finland for a spot in the gold medal game at the 2026 IIHF World Championship at Swiss Life Arena.

Last Game

Canada shut out the United States 4-0 on Thursday to advance to the semifinals. Jet Greaves was fantastic in net, making 34 saves in the crease. Macklin Celebrini and Dylan Holloway scored, with Connor Brown and Sidney Crosby adding empty-net goals late in regulation. Mark Scheifele had two assists in the quarterfinal win.

Finland earned its spot in the semifinals with a 4-1 win over Czechia on Thursday. Sakari Manninen and Anton Lundell gave Finland the lead in the first period before Konsta Helenius scored 1:35 into the second period to make it a 3-0 game. Lenni Hameenaho rounded out the scoring in the final frame and Justus Annunen made 25 saves.

Last Meeting

Last year, Canada suffered its first loss of the tournament to Finland: a 2-1 shootout decision in the preliminary round. Ryan O’Reilly opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal in the second period, but Patrick Puistola tied the game in the third to force extra time. Kent Johnson scored in the shootout, but Finland scored twice on Marc-André Fleury, who made 20 saves in regulation and overtime.

What to Watch

We certainly need to shoutout Greaves, who recorded his first international shutout on Thursday. The Columbus Blue Jackets netminder has had a strong showing in his first tournament wearing the Maple Leaf. In six appearances, the 25-year-old has a 1.33 goals-against average and a 0.948 save percentage to place him fourth in the tournament’s goaltending leaders. And we’d be remised if we didn’t mention Celebrini and Crosby—the duo has combined for almost 23 per cent of Canada’s points at Men’s Worlds (22 of 97), with Celebrini remaining second in tournament scoring with six goals and 12 points and Crosby recording his first goal of the tournament on Thursday to go with his nine assists.

Finland’s only loss in this tournament was in its final preliminary-round game, falling 4-2 to host Switzerland. The Finns enter the semifinals with strong special teams, going 8-for-25 on the power play and only allowing three goals on 20 penalty kills. There are a lot of familiar names on the Finnish team—13 players are active in the NHL, including captain Aleksander Barkov. The Florida Panthers centre missed the entire 2025-26 NHL season with a torn ACL and MCL, but received medical clearance in April and opted to play at Men’s Worlds. He has two goals and seven assists heading into the semifinals, which is second to Jesse Puljujarvi on Finland, who leads the team with four goals and five assists.

A Look Back

The Canadians and Finns have certainly been familiar foes at Men’s Worlds. In fact, only Sweden (71 GP) has been a more frequent opponent for Canada than Finland, with the teams set to meet for a 57th time in Zurich.

Canada has a 2-1-1 record when playing Finland in Switzerland in this tournament: an 11-1 win in 1961, a 6-5 win in 1990, a 3-3 tie in 1998, and most recently a 4-3 loss in 2009. These two teams have also met six times in the gold medal game (1994, 2007, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022), with the Canadians holding a 4-2 record in those medal matchups.

All-time record: Canada leads 39-15-2 (3-4 in OT/SO)
Canada goals: 286
Finland goals: 127

For more information:

Esther Madziya
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 284-6484 

emadziya@hockeycanada.ca 

Spencer Sharkey
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 777-4567

ssharkey@hockeycanada.ca

Jeremy Knight
Manager, Corporate Communications
Hockey Canada

(647) 251-9738

jknight@hockeycanada.ca

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