“Ice Confederates” let victory slip away: Finland celebrates

After Slovakia and Canada, Finland is the third team to reach the semifinals at the Winter Olympics. The Scandinavians struggled to find their rhythm for much of Wednesday's game, and the Swiss team almost pulled off a major upset.

February 18, 2026

From: mv

The Swiss national ice hockey team, after two second-place finishes at the last two World Championships, almost caused a sensation at the Olympics as well – but only almost. Against a seemingly invincible Finland, the Swiss put on a clean and organized performance and led 2-0 until six minutes before the end. With a bit of luck and tremendous willpower, however, the Finns turned the tide and celebrated a narrow 3-2 overtime victory.

The quarter-final match at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena was nowhere near as exciting as the one between Canada and the Czech Republic ( we reportedBoth teams started the game well, but no goals were scored initially. Shortly before the first period buzzer, the Swiss took the lead with two quick goals: First, Ken Jäger found the wide-open Damien Riat, who simply had to tap the puck in (15th minute). A minute later, Nino Niederreiter fired the puck into the net off the post without hesitation (16th minute).

Finland turns the tide

The Finns tried hard afterward, but without success. This was partly due to the Swiss defending very skillfully and the excellent performance of 38-year-old Leonardo Genoni in the Swiss goal. Shortly before the end, Sebastian Aho made the game exciting again with a precise shot (54th minute). Until the final buzzer, the Scandinavians had several clear-cut chances, but Genoni and the crossbar initially prevented them from scoring the equalizer.

Sebastian Aho scored the temporary 1-2 consolation goal. © APA/afp / JULIEN DE ROSA

With an extra man on the ice, things finally clicked: A shot from Miro Heiskanen was unfortunately deflected into his own net by Swiss defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler (59th minute). For the second time in three quarterfinal games, overtime was needed to decide who would advance. The game started off lively, with play going back and forth, before a Swiss line change error led to the decisive goal – Artturi Lehkonen gratefully accepted the gift and beat Genoni one-on-one for the jubilant game-winner (64th minute).