Milano Cortina 2026 Men’s Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification matchday 2: France and Kazakhstan keep Olympic hopes alive
All three qualifying groups will feature direct battles on the final matchday to decide who will head to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
Ice Hockey
With one round of matches to go, the final three spots for the Milano Cortina 2026 men’s ice hockey competition are still anyone’s for the taking.
Two of the three qualifying groups in the Men’s Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification have the top two teams tied on six points, both meeting in deciding matches in the final matchday on Sunday (1 September). Denmark's overtime win means they are one point shy of Norway ahead of their huge clash.
Alongside group hosts Slovakia, Latvia and Denmark, three other teams - Kazakhstan, France and Norway - have won two games from two and will provide stern competition to the home favourites spearheaded by some of the best foreign talent in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Here is how the second round of fixtures on the road to the Olympic Winter Games unfolded.
Denmark and Norway set for Scandinavian showdown
The match of the day saw the best saved until last when Denmark hosted Japan in Aalborg. Japan stunned the hosts when Nakajima Teruto broke the deadlock early on, before Denmark turned it around in a frantic first period to take a 2-1 lead.
Japan remained resilient and found a way back into it to the Danes’ dismay, who were pushing to restore their advantage in the final period but could not break through a stern Japanese defence.
Overtime was required to settle the winner, and with 44 seconds remaining, Lars Eller of the Pittsburgh Penguins stepped up to fire the puck through goaltender Narisawa Yuta. They did it the hard way, but Denmark keep themselves in a solid position with five points going into the finale against neighbours Norway.
Earlier on Friday (30 August), Norway have put themselves in pole position possible to reach the Olympics, reaching tournament double figures after a rampant 6-2 win against Great Britain.
The Brits could not handle the ruthless Norwegians, who scored five goals without reply including a pair from Patrick Thoreson. GB did get something out of the game, two goals scored by Josh Waller and Ben Davies, but Ken Andre Olimb’s subsequent strike ended that momentum and secured a vital result for Norway.
France scoring for fun in pursuit of Milano Cortina 2026
The highest-scoring team in the final round of qualification so far, France are enjoying themselves with 12 goals in two games.
On Friday (30 August) they swept past Slovenia 5-1, thanks to a hat-trick from Alexandre Texier of the St. Louis Blues, capped off by a Tim Bozon brace at the Arena Riga.
France will take on hosts Latvia on the final day, who also romped to a free-scoring victory against Ukraine. It has been a tough competition for Ukraine in a competitive group, as Latvian captain and NHL Entry Draft pick Dans Locmelis opened the scoring.
They hammered home their advantage with five goals before the end of the second period, and though Ukraine pulled one back in the end, it was not to be as Latvia made it two wins from two with a 5-1 result in the capital.
NHL star Alexandre Texier scored a hat-trick for France in their Olympic qualifier against Slovenia.
Gutsy Kazakhstan stand in stellar Slovakia’s way
Slovakia came into the final Olympic qualifiers as the standout side, and the ninth-ranked team in the world have backed that up so far. After a tight opening day victory, their NHL starpower shone through in a rampant 7-3 win against Hungary.
After going behind early on, Slovakia responded instantly through Marek Hrivik in the first of four goals without reply on home ice.
Hungary found consolation goals but could never get close to the Slovaks, who are in a strong position to qualify – though Kazakhstan will have something to say about that.
The sixth-highest ranked side of the 12 teams took the lead inside 105 seconds against Austria thanks to Dmitri Breus. A final-period equaliser for the Austrians looked like it could knock the wind out of the Kazakhs, but Tamirlan Gaitamirov scored the winner with eight minutes to go to seal an impressive 2-1 win.
Men’s Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification – full schedule and how to watch live
Teams will play three games across four days, with a rest day between the final round of matches on 1 September.
View the full schedules for Group D, Group E and Group F. All matches will be streamed live by the International Ice Hockey Federation on YouTube (territorial restrictions apply).