{"id":489054,"date":"2026-02-21T03:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T03:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489054\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T03:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T03:26:11","slug":"winnipeg-bars-restaurants-opening-doors-early-for-olympic-gold-medal-mens-hockey-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489054\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg bars, restaurants opening doors early for Olympic gold medal men&#8217;s hockey game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Canada&#8217;s men&#8217;s hockey team is back in the gold medal game at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games, and Winnipeggers will have the chance to cheer on the team at some of their favourite watering holes Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The province announced on Friday that bars and restaurants are permitted to open early on Sunday, giving fans a chance to watch Canada clash with their U.S. rivals in the final event of the Games in Milan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Licensed establishments that apply for early opening can serve liquor as early as one hour before the televised game starts at 7:10 a.m. CT, the province said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Manitoba regulations allow the\u00a0Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba to authorize extended hours for &#8220;events of community, provincial or national significance,&#8221; the release said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fifty-seven licensed premises had already received permission to open early for the game prior to the province&#8217;s announcement on Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the liquor authority said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Canada&#8217;s team, which features Winnipeg&#8217;s Seth Jarvis and Travis Sanheim of Elkhorn, along with Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, clinched its spot in the gold medal game after erasing a two-goal deficit against Finland on Friday, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/olympics\/winter\/hockey\/olympics-mens-hockey-canada-semifinal-finland-february-20-9.7097502\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nathan MacKinnon&#039;s final-minute one-timer;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Nathan MacKinnon&#8217;s final-minute one-timer<\/a> clinching a 3-2 semifinal victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/olympics\/winter\/hockey\/united-states-slovakia-mens-hockey-semifinal-recap-feb20-9.7100368#:~:text=The%20much%2Danticipated%20but%20never,the%20semifinals%20on%20Friday%20night.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:U.S. blasted by upstart Slovakia 6-2;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">U.S. blasted by upstart Slovakia 6-2<\/a> later in the day to earn its first trip to the gold medal game since falling to Canada on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/2.722\/canada-outlasts-u-s-for-hockey-gold-1.867197\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sidney Crosby&#039;s golden goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sidney Crosby&#8217;s golden goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics<\/a> in Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Canada fans celebrate after Canada's Nathan MacKinnon scoring his side's third goal during a men's ice hockey semifinal game between Canada and Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/467c677079857a876f9e0804c3652c36.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Fans celebrate after MacKinnon scored the go-ahead goal during Friday&#8217;s semifinal game. (Petr David Josek\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Shortly after the final horn of the Canada-Finland game sounded, Underdogs, a sports bar on the west side of Winnipeg, said in a social media post it would be opening at 6:30 a.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We wanted to join the party. It&#8217;s going to be a fun time for the whole city to get up early and support the team,&#8221; said Frank Fiorillo, a part owner of Underdogs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He can&#8217;t recall the last time the sports bar opened so early for a marquee sporting event, but the response from the community was swift.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It took only about four hours for Underdogs to completely book up its 150 seats, though an estimated 30 seats around the bar will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, Fiorillo said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Underdogs is cheering for the Jets, hoping Monday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights ends with a win.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/64a06a27f0371ccf8853c26931f14ae9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Underdogs had a sign cheering on the Winnipeg Jets during the 2023 NHL playoffs. The sports bar is fully booked ahead of Sunday morning&#8217;s Olympic gold medal men&#8217;s hockey game, featuring Canada and the U.S. (Walther Bernal\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He told CBC he was &#8220;shocked&#8221; by how quickly his business booked up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I thought we&#8217;re going to be taking reservations into [Saturday], but our loyal customer base booked it up pretty quick, which we&#8217;re grateful for,&#8221; Fiorillo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Colin Koop would also like to see a full house at his establishment early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Devil May Care Brewing Company general manager and co-owner says the downtown Winnipeg business&#8217;s doors will open just before 7 a.m. It&#8217;s asking prospective customers to bring their own breakfast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I am a hockey fan. I especially love it when people are into it. I love Olympic hockey. I love when people are behind the Jets,&#8221; Koop said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I get into sports that I&#8217;m not even really into based on people around me and how much people are excited.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Colin Koop is the co-owner of Devil May Care Brewing in Winnipeg.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7d2abd425a737f6710a6de3320f6b5e0.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Colin Koop is the general manager and co-owner of Devil May Care Brewing Company. (Josh Crabb\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There were a few people watching Canada&#8217;s semifinal contest at the brewery, and following Canada&#8217;s comeback win, Koop and his fellow co-owner decided they should explore the idea of opening up well before the usual Sunday noon opening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I&#8217;m really happy that the powers that be make the changes so quickly to be able to allow us to do this. Literally as soon as the game finished, I sent a message to our licensing adviser at the province and got a response back really quickly saying, yes, this is what you can do,&#8221; Koop said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Capacity is around 100, but when the brewery has previously opened up in the mornings \u2014 usually for European football matches \u2014 it usually doesn&#8217;t have more than 30 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Koop is optimistic that more Winnipeggers will turn up to cheer Canada on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Really hard to say if people are really into it, which I suspect they will be. You know, we could push capacity and that would be incredible,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I would love that on Sunday morning.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada&#8217;s men&#8217;s hockey team is back in the gold medal game at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,30126,160495,45338,48001,16061,29410,196642,71222,20710,85968,85703,196643,55,22073,449],"class_list":{"0":"post-489054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gold-medal","11":"tag-hockey-game","12":"tag-josh-morrissey","13":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","14":"tag-olympic-games","15":"tag-olympic-gold-medal","16":"tag-semifinal-game","17":"tag-seth-jarvis","18":"tag-sidney-crosby","19":"tag-sunday-morning","20":"tag-travis-sanheim","21":"tag-underdogs","22":"tag-vancouver","23":"tag-winnipeg","24":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489054","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=489054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}