Coming into the quarterfinals matchup in the 2026 IIHF World Championship, both Team USA and Canada knew only one of them would be left standing when the final horn blasted at BCF Arena. However, reality still hits different when it arrives, and the Americans were flooded with emotions as they fell to their septentrional neighbors in Fribourg, Switzerland.
The international dream is now over for USA. The defeat at the hands of its biggest rivals in hockey made sure to that. As a result, Team USA has been eliminated from the 2026 IIHF World Championship. Meanwhile, the Maple Leaf is off to the semifinals. Who Canada will play next in the IIHF Worlds will be decided when the winning teams are reseeded.
As they suffered an early elimination in the World Championship, Matthew Tkachuk and Team USA officially enter the offseason. It will be a long summer until the 2026-27 NHL season comes around, and the sour taste will remain in their mouths after a heartbreaking defeat to Canada.
Despite being without Evan Bouchard for most of the game against Team USA, Canada pushed through to advance past its rivals. The Americans will now fly back home across the Atlantic Ocean with sorrow in their hearts and no medal around their necks.
Matthew Tkachuk of Team USA.
USA is eliminated
The reigning IIHF World champions are out of the tournament. Though boasting a very different lineup, Team USA was looking to conquer back-to-back championships for the first time in country history.
The American dream of the team’s fifth championship in this tournament came to the worst possible ending, as it was none other than the Great White North who knocked them out of the tournament.
The United States have won the IIHF World Championship in 1933, 1960, and 2025. With this defeat, ghosts from the past are resurfacing. No one wants to endure another long drought.
Canada avoids disaster
It’d have been déjà vu for Crosby, Celebrini, and Canada. Once again, Crosby has headed to Europe in search of redemption after a rough ending to the NHL season. This time, he was determined not to suffer another early exit.
It happened in 2025, when Canada was bounced in this same stage by Denmark. It has happened again. Only this time, Canada’s slim reaper would’ve been the one team it wished it were not: the USA. Instead, the Maple Leaf recorded its 43rd win over the Stars and Stripes in World Championship history.
After coming out medal-less in 2024 and 2025, Canada is now guaranteed to play for a medal in the 2026 IIHF World Championship. The drought, if a two-year span can be called that, could now be over.
Game summary
Canada broke the deadlock in the first period thanks to a power-play goal from its captain, Macklin Celebrini. The Americans couldn’t escape the Canadians’ chokehold and Dylan Holloway doubled his country’s lead 9:48 minutes into the second period.
There was still half a game left to be played, but that was all she wrote for the USA. The Canadians added two goals on an empty net for good measure as they defeated their neighbors by a score of 4-0. In the end, Canada’s veterancy and star-studded roster proved too much to handle. Celebrini, Holloway, Brown, and Crosby scored the goals for Canada to reach the semifinals.
