The Olympic semifinals are taking place today, February 20th, and both games are setting out to be exciting matchups. The two games being played are Canada vs Finland and USA vs Slovakia, four great teams fighting for the gold.
Canada vs Finland
After a nail-biting overtime win over Czechia, Canada seeks to have a dominating win over a tough Finnish team. Czechia scored late in the game to take the lead and Nick Suzuki tied the game last minute to send it into overtime where it was won by Golden Knight Mitch Marner. Finland, in a similar situation after going down 2-0 to Switzerland in the previous game and coming back to win, are serious underdogs for this game. This could be a very close matchup but could easily be taken over by Canada if the big guns of McDavid, Mackinnon, and Celebrini go off.
USA vs Slovakia
USA, also coming off of an extremely close, overtime victory over Sweden, with Quinn Hughes netting a pill to seal it, seeks to have a strong win over Slovakia as well. The Slovakian underdogs have played well with standout performances from Montreal Canadien Juraj Slafkovsky and goaltender Samuel Hlavaj, and this could very well be a game if the US team has a slow start, looks shaky, or just plain gets goalied.
Personally, I believe that if the USA wants to stand a chance against this Canadian team in a Gold medal game, they need to come out with a strong, decisive victory over Slovakia here on Friday.
These are shaping up to be two great games
