Puck drops on men's hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics with NHL players STEPHEN WHYNOFebruary 11, 2026 at 9:38 PM 0 1 / 3Milan Cortina Olympics Ice HockeyFinland's Niko Mikkola (77)challenges Slovakia's Tomas Tatar (90) during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Slovakia and Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) MILAN (AP) — The puck has dropped on men's hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
- - Puck drops on men's hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics with NHL players
STEPHEN WHYNOFebruary 11, 2026 at 9:38 PM
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1 / 3Milan Cortina Olympics Ice HockeyFinland's Niko Mikkola (77)challenges Slovakia's Tomas Tatar (90) during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Slovakia and Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
MILAN (AP) — The puck has dropped on men's hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Finland and Slovakia played Wednesday the first of 30 games in the tournament that will conclude with the gold medal final on Feb. 22. Players from the NHL are participating in the games for the first time in 12 years going back to Sochi in 2014, ending a long wait for stars from all over the world.
"It's been a long buildup," Sweden coach Sam Hallam said. "I'm definitely going to feel the butterflies walking out to the bench tonight at 10 past 9. But then the puck drops and I hope we just get into it for the players to find some battles, find some races, just get into it, start sweating and it's going to be good."
Sweden faces Italy in prime time, in front of a crowd that is expected to give the home team a loud boost as a prohibitive underdog.
"We play against teams that have full NHL rosters," said Italy winger Dustin Gazley, a Michigan native who is one of several foreigners on the roster. "We know that. But we came together as a team and we've been pushing pretty hard and the best we can do is give our 100% for our team and do what we can on the ice and have fun out there and hopefully we can be successful."
The tournament favorites get underway Thursday. The U.S. faces Latvia, while Canada takes on Czechia.
They got to sit and watch what it might be like to take center stage at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which was nearly filled to the capacity of 11,600 by the time Finland's Anton Lundell and Slovakia's Adam Ruzicka lined up for the opening faceoff 20 minutes before 5 p.m. local time. The crowd roared in the opening moments when scoring chances materialized and gasped when Slovakia goaltender Samuel Hlavaj stopped a slap shot from point-blank range.
Juraj Slafkovsky scored the first men's hockey goal in Milan for Slovakia just under eight minutes in, picking up where he left off in Beijing four years ago. Slafkovsky scored seven times in that tournament to earn MVP honors on the way to Slovakia taking home bronze — its first-ever Olympic hockey medal of any color.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://ift.tt/S02txUR
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: Sports
Published: February 11, 2026 at 06:27PM on Source: RED MAG
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