United States and Canada advance to Olympic men's ice hockey semifinals

The United States and Canada, pre-tournament favorites, remained on track to meet in the Olympic men's ice hockey semifinal with overtime victories in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Mitch Marner scored in overtime and Canada beat the Czech Republic 4-3 to reach the semifinals.

The Americans also had to fight to the end against Sweden before Quinn Hughes scored three minutes, 27 seconds into overtime for a 2-1 victory in front of thousands of U.S. fans at Milan's Santagiulia Arena. Mitch Marner scored in overtime and Canada beat the Czech Republic 4-3 to reach the semifinals.

Canada will face defending champion, Finland, and the United States will play Slovakia; both semifinals will be Friday.

Canada had cruised through the preliminary round with ease, defeating the Czechs 5-0 just six days earlier. But the 2024 world champions proved much tougher opponents this time, until Marner applied the decisive touch.

"(It was) adrenaline: trust in your skill that you work on so hard," Marner said.

"You just trust yourself to make a play there, and I was lucky enough to score."

Macklin Celebrini put Canada ahead after four minutes before Lukas Sedlak equalized four minutes later.

The Czech Republic took the lead thanks to David Pastrnak's first goal of the tournamenton the quarter-hour mark.

The Canadians upped their game in the second period, outshooting their opponents 17 to 5. They lacked precision in the final touch and only a flagrant foul by Michal Kempny opened space for Nathan MacKinnon to make it 2-2.

Crosby's strike

Canada lost captain Sidney Crosby, two-time Olympic champion in 2010 and 2014, to a leg injury that ruled him out for the rest of the match.

The Czechs regained the lead with a spectacular counterattack that culminated Ondrej Palat.

The Canadian response came with a long-range shot from Nick Suzuki before Marner scored the winning goal.

The U.S. took the lead in their game with a goal by Dylan Larkin in the second period, but Mika Zibanejad put the fight to the Americans when he leveled the score for Sweden in the third.

In the middle of overtime, Hughes skated in front of the Swedish goal and fired past the Swedish goalie as the U.S. bench and a large percentage of the crowd erupted in celebration.

Both Canada and the United States have squads full of National Hockey League players competing in an Olympics for the first time since 2014.

Earlier, Finland had advanced to the final after beating Switzerland 3-2 in another game that went into overtime, while Slovakia thrashed Germany 6-2.

Artturi Lehkonen was Finland's hero, scoring the winning goal in three-on-three overtime.

The Slovaks, bronze medalists four years ago, took control of the match at the end of the first period with a goal by Pavol Regenda after 19 minutes.

The rest of the game was a display of Slovakian skill, with Milos Kelemen and Oliver Okuliar scoring two quick goals before Dalibor Dvorsky scored the fourth just after the half-hour mark.