Finland earns feisty win over Sweden at Olympics as McDavid and Crosby score in Canada's victory

MILAN (AP) — Finland showed plenty of fight in reviving its Olympic campaign.

Joel Armia scored a short-handed goal and the Finns outmuscled archrival Sweden in a 4-1 group-stage victory Friday — 20 years after the sides squared off in the gold medal game at the Turin Games.

Finland’s win — after losing its opener at the Milan Cortina Games to Slovakia — leaves the group’s quarterfinal spot up for grabs Saturday.

“Everybody was fired up for this, and I’m sure they were, too,” Finland defenseman Olli Maatta said. “These are unbelievable games to play in, and I’m very happy with the win today. We’ve just got to build off that.”

The scrappy matchup featured pushing and shoving at the end of the second period, even if the stakes were lower than the 2006 Turin Games final. Sweden won that one, which still resonates today for both countries.

Friday's third period opened with three players in the penalty box for each team — five for roughing and one for holding.

Anton Lundell scored in the first period and prevented a Sweden goal midway through the third — with his team leading 3-1 — when he swept the puck off the goal line.

“I don’t really know what happened, but all of sudden the puck was going in the net and I was lucky to be close and I was lucky that nobody pushed it in before me,” the Florida Panthers center said.

No one was happier than goalie Juuse Saros: “Obviously a big thanks to him.”

Saros made 34 saves.

The Finns outworked their rivals on the boards and were rewarded on a second-period penalty kill when Erik Haula shielded the puck from three Swedes and passed to Armia, who was alone in front of net to make it 3-1.

Finland scored twice in the opening period before Sweden fought back with Rasmus Dahlin's power-play goal in the second to make it 2-1.

Finland opened the scoring on its second shot on goal. Nikolas Matinpalo’s wrist shot beat Filip Gustavsson glove side, hit the left post and went in. Gustavsson gave up two early goals against Italy in Sweden’s opening 5-2 victory.

The Finns doubled their lead thanks to hard work in the corner by Eetu Luostarinen, whose shot on net hit Panthers teammate Lundell’s stick, went off Gustavsson and in.

Finland killed off two third-period power plays before Mikko Rantanen's empty-net goal sealed the victory.

Tensions frayed in the closing seconds of the end of the second period. Three helmets ended up on the ice after the horn blew.

“You’re down, you’ve got to do something to try to change the momentum," Sweden forward Adrian Kempe said, “so you just try to get in there and create or something just to turn our game around and fire your teammates up or fans or whatever it is.”

Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby scored in a 5-1 victory over Switzerland as Canada improved to 2-0. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists.

Thomas Harley and Macklin Celebrini also scored for the tournament favorite.

McDavid scored his first Olympic goal when — on a first-period power play — he took a back-post pass from MacKinnon and beat goalie Akira Schmid with a wrist shot.

About a minute later, Schmid made an acrobatic stop to deny Crosby on a breakaway by lifting his left skate in the air to block the Pittsburgh star’s backhand attempt.

McDavid added an assist when he fed Harley, who snapped a shot through Schmid’s pads for a 2-0 lead midway through the first.

Pius Suter tapped in a power-play goal for Switzerland in the first.

Celebrini made it 3-1 early in the second by taking MacKinnon's pass and scoring from close range shortly after Canada killed off a penalty. The San Jose Sharks center, at 19 the youngest player on Canada’s team, also scored Thursday in a win over Czechia.

In the third, Crosby scored by redirecting a hard pass to the crease by Mitch Marner. MacKinnon made it 5-1 with just under seven minutes left when he slid home a rebound.

Switzerland's loss was made worse by a leg injury to forward Kevin Fiala of the Los Angeles Kings late in the game. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher.

Adam Ruzicka’s third-period goal stood as the winner in Slovakia’s 3-2 victory over Italy. Matus Sukel and Libor Hudacek also scored for Slovakia, which improved to 2-0 to lead Group B ahead of Saturday's group-stage finale against Sweden.

Dustin Gazley, whose goal cut the lead to 3-2 with 3:35 remaining, also assisted on Matt Bradley’s goal for winless Italy. Gazley and Bradley are among Italy's group of foreign-born players. Italy plays Finland on Saturday.

Czechia rebounded from its Group A opening loss to Canada by beating France 6-3. Louis Boudon scored twice for France, which led 3-2 on Hugo Gallet's second-period goal before Czechia took over. David Pastrnak's goal tied it at 3-all and Matej Stransky put the Czechs ahead late in the second. Filip Chlapik and Roman Cervenka scored in the third. Pastrnak assisted on Martin Necas' opener in the first, when Michal Kempny also scored.

The U.S. is off and faces Denmark on Saturday in Group C.

The three group winners in the 12-team tournament qualify directly to the quarterfinals, along with the best second-place team. The remaining teams enter a one-game playoff to join the final eight.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Canada's Sidney Crosby, right, fails to score past Switzerland's goalkeeper Akira Schmid during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Canada and Switzerland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Canada's Connor McDavid, back, celebrates with Canada's Nathan MacKinnon after scoring his sides first goal during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Canada and Switzerland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Finland's Anton Lundell, left, scores his team's second goal past Sweden's Filip Gustavsson, during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Sweden's Mika Zibanejad, up, challenges Finland's Miro Heiskanen during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Slovakia's Adam Ruzicka, obscured behind, celebrates scoring a goal in the third period with teammates, Peter Ceresnak (14), Martin Gernat (28), Oliver Okuliar (8) and Pavol Regenda (84) during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Italy and Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Sweden's Mika Zibanejad, up, challenges Finland's Miro Heiskanen during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Finland's Miro Heiskanen, right, challenges Sweden's Lucas Raymond, center, as he tries to score past Finland's goalkeeper Juuse Saros during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Sweden and Finland players fight, during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Finland's Joel Armia, left, scores his sides third goal past Sweden's goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson during a preliminary round match of men's ice hockey between Finland and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)