{"id":485094,"date":"2026-02-19T10:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485094\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:45:07","slug":"anatomy-of-a-goal-its-a-pretty-special-one-marner-says-of-his-heart-stopping-ot-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485094\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of a goal: \u2018It\u2019s a pretty special one,\u2019 Marner says of his heart-stopping OT winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Mitch Marner said his overtime goal in Wednesday’s Olympic quarter-final against Czechia was the biggest of his career.Marton Monus\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Just over a minute into overtime against Czechia, as Mitch Marner picked up a drop pass from Macklin Celebrini at Team Canada\u2019s blueline, he wasn\u2019t necessarily thinking of scoring.<\/p>\n

As he sped through the neutral zone and all three Czech players seemed to converge around him, he definitely wasn\u2019t thinking of a goal at that point, either.<\/p>\n

Marner had Celebrini, a goal-scoring prodigy at these Olympics<\/a>, over on his right side near the boards. That was the play, he thought. The Czechs were thinking the same.<\/p>\n

As Marner crossed the opposing blueline one-on-three against the Czechs, defenceman Radim Simek glanced sideways, saw the wide-open Celebrini, and took a step toward him.<\/p>\n

In that moment, Marner went from being in an improbable spot to generate offence \u2013 surrounded by three defenders \u2212 to being seconds away from the biggest goal of his life.<\/p>\n

Canada survives quarter-final scare from Czechia with overtime win<\/a><\/p>\n

The sudden hesitation from Simek caused a seam to open. <\/p>\n

Now there was daylight between Marner and the net. As he sped up, accelerating through the chasm, Simek changed course, leaned back in Marner\u2019s direction and quickly tried to close the space between him and the Canadian winger.<\/p>\n

Too late. Marner was through.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust tried to see what my options were when I got over the blueline,\u201d Marner said afterward, describing the winner in three-on-three overtime that kept Canada\u2019s gold medal hopes alive by ousting Czechia 4-3 in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Marner felt the adrenalin surge after his game-winner. The goal came as a relief to millions of Canadians with gold medal hopes for the men’s hockey team.AMBER SEARLS\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Mack kind of on my right side, was looking to make a play to him … then just kind of saw a hole and a gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrej Kase and David Kampf both couldn\u2019t catch him. They were one-time teammates of Marner when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and would have known about his slipperiness.<\/p>\n

Simek, scrambling to recover, had the best chance of anyone.<\/p>\n

As Marner neared the net, arms outstretched and trying desperately to control the puck on his backhand, Simek lunged toward him. Even then, Marner still wasn\u2019t thinking goal. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust tried to get it back on my stick quickly and make a quick move and go far side,\u201d Marner said. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Czechs invoke Nagano spirit as Canada narrowly avoids a history lesson<\/a><\/p>\n

His backhand shot went up over Czech goalie Lukas Dostal\u2019s shoulder and just inside where the crossbar meets the goalpost. It was the kind of shot that might sail wide if a player was trying to pick that spot. But this one didn\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n

In that moment, the mostly Canadian crowd inside Milan\u2019s Santagiulia Ice hockey Arena erupted in a mixture exaltation and relief. But mostly relief.<\/p>\n

On the bench, head coach Jon Cooper laughed and shook his head like he\u2019d just seen a card trick.<\/p>\n

Marner called it the biggest goal of his life. Hard to say it isn\u2019t, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a special one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Czechia goaltender Lukas Dostal and defencemen Michal Kempny and Radko Gudas watched the replay of Marner’s goal in disbelief.AMBER SEARLS\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Brad Marchand called the play unbelievable. \u201cSo silky and poised with the puck, he can make something out of nothing,\u201d Marchand said.<\/p>\n

Cooper joked that Marner can be a stressful player to have on the ice sometimes, because he tries things others might not, but the risk is worth the reward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just never a doubt in my mind about throwing that kid over the boards, because he doesn\u2019t disappoint,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes your hair falls out at times, but in the end, he never disappoints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goaltender Jordan Binnington, from the other end of the rink, figured he might have had the best view of anyone of the gap Marner shot through.<\/p>\n

Like incoming pucks, Binnington continues to deflect doubts<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing from my angle, just watching him decide to cut through and take that ice, get in there and rip that backhander,\u201d Binnington said. \u201cIt was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only player unaware of how it all went down was defenceman Devon Toews. His view from the bench was suddenly blocked when the rest of Team Canada stood up as Marner closed in on the net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still haven\u2019t seen it,\u201d Toews said afterward. \u201cThe guys are telling me it was quite a sick shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

But wait, didn\u2019t he see it on the jumbotron? No, Toews said, the scoreboard at Santagiulia is too high.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Marner was mobbed by his teammates and celebrated by the large Canadian contingent in the arena in Milan on Wednesday. Canada will face Finland in the Olympic semi-final on Friday.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jumbotron\u2019s like, on the moon up there, so it\u2019s hard to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Toews wasn\u2019t the only one there in person who won\u2019t recall seeing the goal live.<\/p>\n

Marner said the moment was particularly special because his son, born last year, was in the building for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s pretty young, he probably won\u2019t remember. He was probably sleeping on Mom,\u201d Marner said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019ll be something cool to look back at one day with him, and just kind of show him where he was and what he was doing in this kind of moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Mitch Marner said his overtime goal in Wednesday’s Olympic quarter-final against Czechia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,2922,4963,187287,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-485094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-noastack","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-olympicstaff","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}