MILAN (AP) — Three weeks after the United States and Canada clashed in the Olympic hockey finals, they are on course to face off for gold again. This time at the Paralympics.
The U.S. is looking to cement itself as the top hockey nation. Canada is determined to prevent its neighbors from doing the Olympic and Paralympic sweep at Milan Cortina.
Click to Gallery
United States players celebrate at the end of the Group A preliminary Rond hockey match between Germany and United States at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Canada's Greg Westlake controls the puck during the Group A preliminary round hockey match between Japan and Canada at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States' Kevin McKee, left, challenges for the puck with China's Wang Zhidong during the Group A ice hockey match between United States and China at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Canada's Tyler McGregor scores his side's first goal during the Group A preliminary round hockey match between Japan and Canada at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States' Josh Pauls, center, celebrates with his teammates after scoring during the Group A ice hockey match between United States and China at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
It looks set to be another chapter of the famed rivalry between the two hockey powerhouses.
“It’s one of the best rivalries in sport and we’re so fortunate that we have the opportunity to be a part of it,” Canada captain Tyler McGregor told The Associated Press. “Those are games that they’re just different as an athlete: they’re more emotional, they’re chaotic at times, there’s so many momentum swings over the course of a game.
"When the pressure is on you really need to be able to manage that emotionally. And those games, they’re fast, they’re physical, they test you in ways that is so incredible as an athlete and we can’t wait to potentially have that opportunity later in the tournament.”
Both nations topped their groups in the para ice hockey round-robin stage, winning all three of their matches comprehensively.
Four-time defending champion U.S., which has scored 34 goals and let in just two, will face the Czech Republic in Friday’s semifinals, when Canada, which has allowed just one goal and scored 26, will play China.
“We’re both at a high level, their guys care just as much as we do, they train just as hard,” U.S. forward Kevin McKee said. “And then, obviously, we play such tight games So you build that, not necessarily hatred, but that competition. Like you like to compete against them, because they’re just good games.”
The U.S. is also aiming for hockey history, looking to become the first country to do the three-peat after winning gold in both the men’s and women’s competitions at the Olympics.
The Americans swept all four world championships last year. There is currently no women’s division at the Paralympics, with it classified as an open-gender sport.
“No team’s ever won all three hockey gold medals in the Olympics and Paralympics so I think it’s a lofty goal but I think, obviously the men and women got it done so we just got to keep building every game and hopefully we can bring one home,” U.S. captain Josh Pauls said.
Teammate Jack Wallace believes the Canadians “are licking the wounds right now after the Olympics,” having lost to the Americans in both gold medal matches.
“I know we’re trying to stop that (run) right here,” Canada goalkeeper Corbin Watson said. “We’re coming in as a renewed force. I know last year wasn’t the greatest … but this year we pushed really hard, we did a lot of good things in our training throughout the year.
“So we’re eyeing that gold medal game … eyeing Team USA to come for them.”
While the Olympics saw the U.S. men win gold for the first time since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980, it’s a different story at the Paralympics.
The U.S. has triumphed at five of the past six editions of the Winter Paralympics and several of its players are targeting a fourth straight gold medal, with Pauls incredibly targeting a fifth.
Canada finished runner-up at the past two Paralympics but Italian ice may just prove lucky as the team won its only gold medal in Turin in 2006.
Greg Westlake, a member of that gold medal team, announced in August that he would step down from his assistant coaching role with the national team to come out of retirement and rejoin his teammates on the ice.
“One of the reasons I came back to play this year was I thought it would just be really cool to kind of wrap up where it all started,” the 39-year-old said. “I have such great memories of 2006.
“I remember when you get the gold medal, you get the flowers that come with it and I found my mom in the stands and I tossed her the flowers and she’s crying, and then you line up on the blue line and sing ‘O Canada’ and to this day it’s one of the greatest memories of my life so I just want those guys on the team who haven’t experienced that to experience that because it’s very well deserved for all those guys.”
AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
United States players celebrate at the end of the Group A preliminary Rond hockey match between Germany and United States at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Canada's Greg Westlake controls the puck during the Group A preliminary round hockey match between Japan and Canada at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States' Kevin McKee, left, challenges for the puck with China's Wang Zhidong during the Group A ice hockey match between United States and China at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Canada's Tyler McGregor scores his side's first goal during the Group A preliminary round hockey match between Japan and Canada at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States' Josh Pauls, center, celebrates with his teammates after scoring during the Group A ice hockey match between United States and China at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Iran fired missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf including oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and a ship off the coast of the Emirates, while Israeli and the United States struck targets across the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia and other states said they intercepted multiple drone attacks.
Six members of the Iranian women’s soccer team will remain in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, while one of the squad members who was previously granted asylum changed her mind and planned to return to Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts there were no reports of Iran planting explosives in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil is shipped. The U.S. said it took out more than a dozen minelaying Iranian vessels Tuesday to help prevent any attempt to close the waterway.
Iran's vow not to allow any oil through the strategic strait has led to market volatility and fears of shortages, especially in Asia, which is dependent on oil shipped from the region.
Israel struck a building in the center of the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against Hezbollah. The Lebanese group has been carrying out attacks against Israel in support of Iran.
Here is the latest:
Two Iranian drones struck near Dubai International Airport on Wednesday and wounded four people, authorities said.
The Dubai Media Office, which issues statement on behalf of the city-state’s government, said the attack caused “minor injuries to two Ghanaian nationals and one Bangladeshi national, and moderate injuries to one Indian national.”
Flights have continued, the office said.
Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, is the world’s busiest for international travel. Authorities have been trying build up its flight schedule though the airport has been targeted in the war.
Another ship came under attack Wednesday in the Persian Gulf, the British military said.
A bulk carrier was hit by a projectile off a distance from the United Arab Emirates, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
“There is no report of any environmental impact,” the center said. “The crew are reported safe and well.”
It was the third attack reported Wednesday.
Speculation over the health of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei grew Wednesday after the son of Iran’s president mentioned hearing news about him “being injured.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mojtaba Khamenei long has been a secretive figure within Iran. His father and wife both were killed in an Israeli airstrike Feb. 28 that started the war.
Khamenei has not been seen since, nor has he given any statement since becoming supreme leader on Monday.
In an overnight post on the app Telegram, Yousef Pezeshkian, the son of President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote: “I heard news about Mr. Mojtaba being injured. I asked friends who were in contact. They said, thank God, he is healthy and there is no problem.”
He did not elaborate.
The Iranian women’s soccer team is in a hotel in Malaysia awaiting travel arrangements to return home, officials said Wednesday.
Iran’s embassy in Malaysia confirmed the squad members landed in the capital Kuala Lumpur early Wednesday and are expected to depart when flights are available and Iran’s airspace reopens, according to the Bernama news agency.
“They want to return home,” the embassy told Bernama.
The Asian Football Confederation said the team is staying at a Kuala Lumpur hotel in the meantime and will receive support from the confederation until their travel arrangements are confirmed, a spokesperson said.
Six women from the Iranian squad will remain in Australia on humanitarian visas after accepting offers of asylum shortly before their scheduled return home.
Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Some of the ships getting through are so-called “dark” transits, meaning they aren’t turning on their Automatic Identification System tracks, which show where vessels are.
Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.
The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday that seven ships had passed through the strait since March 8. Of those, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said.
The commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman.
A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, the firm said.
A projectile hit a cargo ship Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the vessel ablaze after the United States targeted Iranian minelaying vessels that could target the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, said the vessel had been hit just north of Oman in the strait.
It said the crew was evacuating the ship.
Iran did not immediately claim the attack though it has been targeting ships in and around the strait, disrupting a waterway that sees a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded pass through it.
The UKMTO earlier reported on another attack targeting a vessel off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar issued a warning to the public Wednesday morning of a possible Iranian attack.
An Associated Press journalist in Qatar heard explosions as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over Doha, the country’s capital.
Qatar says it won’t serve as a mediator for Iran as it remains under attack from Tehran.
Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, made the statement to the Qatari-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Wednesday.
He noted both Qatar and Oman had been attacked even though they worked to “build bridges between Iran and the West.”
“We will not be able to fulfill that role under attack, and that’s something the Iranians need to understand,” al-Khulaifi said. "The regional countries are not an enemy of Iran, and the Iranians are not understanding that idea.”
Russia said its consulate in the Iranian city of Isfahan was damaged in airstrikes targeting the central Iranian city.
The state-run Tass news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying there were “no casualties or serious injuries” in the strike Sunday, which targeted the nearby governor’s office in the city.
“Windows were shattered in the office building and residential apartments, and several employees were thrown back by the blast wave. Fortunately, there were no casualties or serious injuries,” Zakharova said.
Videos circulating online and broadcast by local news channels from an apparent strike site in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar area of central Beirut show two floors of a multistory building engulfed in flames.
The strike came without warning. There were no immediate reports concerning who was targeted or the number and extent of casualties.
The structure that was hit is several buildings away from Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni Muslim religious authority.
The strike was in an area far from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings earlier in the renewed conflict with Hezbollah.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday it destroyed five drones heading toward the kingdom’s vast Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert. It added that it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the Eastern Province.
Kuwait said it downed eight drones over the tiny, oil-rich nation.
Two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed the country, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, but one of the women changed her mind and plant to return to Iran.
Six women from the Iranian squad will remain in Australia on humanitarian visas after accepting offers of asylum shortly before their scheduled return home, Burke said. The names and photographs of the team members initially granted asylum have been widely published, including by Burke, and it was not immediately clear which of the women reversed her decision.
The rest of the team’s departure from Sydney, Australia, happened late Tuesday during fraught and outraged protests at the delegation’s hotel and the airport. Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.
A projectile hit a container ship early Wednesday morning off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued the warning, saying the attack happened off Ras al-Khaimah, the UAE’s northernmost emirate on the strait.
The center said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”
Ships have effectively halted movement through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes.
A boy runs inside cement pipe turned into a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike in Michmoret, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Protesters wave Iranian flags and hold a portrait of the late Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to support his selection as the new Iran's Supreme Leader in Baghdad, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A displaced woman holds a child as another stands beside her between rows of tents at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, which has been turned into a shelter for people displaced by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
