The playoff round of the 2026 IIHF World Championships began on Thursday, with four Flames in action. Zach Whitecloud and Team Canada took on Devin Cooley and Matt Coronato’s Team USA, while Olli Määttä’s Team Finland took on Team Czechia.

Let’s take a look at how those two games went, how the other two games went, as well as set up Saturday’s semi-finals.

Team Canada vs Team USA

Despite a five-minute power play after an illegal check to the head, the Canadians were unable to score until late in the first period. Captain Macklin Celebrini finally beat Cooley with just 89 seconds left in the period.

Then midway through the second period, St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway extended Team Canada’s lead to two, with Mark Scheifele picking up his second assist of the game. The score stood that way after 40 minutes.

Team USA pressed in the third period, but Connor Brown buried an empty netter with just two minutes to play, with Whitecloud picking up his first assist of the tournament. There was no doubt about the outcome of the game at this point, but Sidney Crosby added an empty netter 40 seconds later, giving the Canadians a 4-0 victory and sending them to the semi-finals.

Cooley was questionable to play in this game after getting hit in the leg with a puck during warmups, but he made the start. And this loss was far from his fault, as he stopped 34 of 36 shots for a .944 save percentage. For the entire tournament, Cooley had a .930 save percentage and 1.76 goals against average in 1.76 games. He’s certainly raised his stock with his 2025-26 season.

In front of him, Coronato finished with a team-high nine shots, ripping four shots on goal in both the second and third period. But at the end of the day, he finished as a minus-2 in his 16 and a half minutes of ice time. Coronato also took 16 draws, winning just five of them for a 31.25 face-off percentage. For the tournament, Coronato scored a goal and three points in eight games, finishing as a minus-6.

On the other side, Whitecloud picked up an assist and finished as a +2 over 20 minutes of ice time. A big reason for the increased ice time was that Evan Bouchard went down with an injury early in the first period, and will be out for the remainder of the tournament. This was Whitecloud’s first point of the tournament, as he now has eight penalty minutes and is a minus-2 overall.

Team Finland vs Team Czechia

The other Flame in action was Team Finland’s Olli Määttä, who played Team Czechia in their quarterfinal game. Seven and a half minutes into the first period, Sakari Manninen opened the scoring for the Finns. Then another seven minutes later, Anton Lundell extended their lead to two.

It took the Finns just 95 seconds into the second period to give themselves a 3-0 lead, as Konsta Helenius beat the Czech netminder. Filip Hronek got on the board midway through the second period, but Lenni Hämeenaho gave the Finns a 4-1 lead, the final score of this game.

Offensively, it was a quiet game for Määttä, who was held pointless in just over 17 minutes of action, but finished as a plus-2. Through his eight games this tournament, the left-shot defenceman has two assists, four penalty minutes, and is a plus-3.

Other notes…

The two other games saw the hosts, Team Switzerland, defeat Team Sweden by a score of 3-1. Moreover, Team Norway’s Cinderella run continues, as they defeated Team Latvia by a score of 2-0 to at the very least, play for a medal. The Norwegians and Swiss will meet on Saturday at 7:20 a.m. MT.

Which means that Määttä and Whitecloud will go head-to-head in the semi-finals. The winner of the game, which starts at 12:00 p.m. MT, will play for a gold medal, while the loser will play for the bronze medal. Both those games are on Sunday, with the bronze medal game starting at 7:30 a.m. MT and the gold medal game starting at 12:20 a.m. MT.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.