{"id":170747,"date":"2026-02-19T03:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170747\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:15:10","slug":"inside-the-dallas-stars-locker-room-during-canadas-olympic-comeback-win-over-czechia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170747\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Dallas Stars locker room during Canada\u2019s Olympic comeback win over Czechia"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 While about 70% of the Dallas Stars<\/a> were back in Frisco on Wednesday for their first practice since the Olympic break, you didn\u2019t have to look further than the TVs in the four corners of their locker room to see where the rest of the team was.<\/p>\n

A brief practice ended, and as players entered the locker room, all eyes were glued to the screen for the final 10 minutes of the men\u2019s hockey Olympic quarterfinals game between Canada and Czechia<\/a> in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n

The conversations between media and players were brief so as not to interrupt them from watching what was one of the best games of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Just over 12 minutes into the third period, the locker room \u2014 filled mostly with non-Canadians at the time \u2014 burst with excitement when Ondrej Palat scored a go-ahead goal to put Czechia up 3-2 over the favorites to win the tournament.<\/p>\n

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A big smile came over Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel\u2019s face as Czechia, which is only a few countries away from his native Switzerland, took a late lead.<\/p>\n

Then, the Canadians started to file in.<\/p>\n

Mavrik Bourque from Quebec (and a notably passionate supporter of his home country) and Wyatt Johnston of Toronto looked nervous as an upset seemingly brewed. <\/p>\n

Matt Duchene, also an Ontario native, offered his two cents on the tournament\u2019s flaws. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the problem with these short tournaments,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one game.\u201d<\/p>\n

But none of the Canadians thought the game was over. Moments later, Nick Suzuki scored the late, game-tying goal. Bourque clenched his fists as he shouted, \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Duchene said, \u201cIt\u2019s over,\u201d rather confident in his countrymen\u2019s chances in overtime.<\/p>\n

He went on to say he felt the Canadians would win gold if they completed the comeback.<\/p>\n

American Adam Erne of Connecticut said, \u201cYou sure they\u2019re gonna get by the U.S.?\u201d<\/p>\n

Duchene was pretty sure.<\/p>\n

The locker room closed before overtime began, so we didn\u2019t get to witness the players\u2019 reaction to Mitch Marner\u2019s back-handed game-winner, as he took on three Czech players at once.<\/p>\n

But a minute after the game concluded, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan of Saskatchewan took the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cMitchy Marner, eh?\u201d he said in truly Canadian fashion. <\/p>\n

Marner may have taken on the entire Czech defense in his game-winner, but Gulutzan\u2019s own defenseman Thomas Harley helped make the goal happen with the secondary assist, his fourth point of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks very comfortable. I thought he\u2019s been really good. He\u2019s looked very solid. Big body, moves, made some great plays,\u201d Gulutzan said of Harley. \u201cHe\u2019s out there 3-on-3, so that tells you what kind of tournament he\u2019s having.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulutzan said he\u2019s thoroughly enjoyed watching the tournament, especially his players. He watched Harley and Radek Faksa get into a small scrum in the first meeting between Czechia and Canada last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was laughing,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cI wanted to know what was said because I saw there was something said to each other. I\u2019ll have to ask them. Maybe they want to finish it out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also held his breath at times, as Faksa has missed the last two games with an injury<\/a>. Gulutzan said he hadn\u2019t yet received an update on his status but expects to soon given Czechia\u2019s elimination.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also watched star defenseman Miro Heiskanen play nearly 30 minutes a night for Finland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what he plays here,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cThe key with him and [Harley] is just making sure they get those rests in between. They can handle those minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, the Stars\u2019 Finnish teammates completed a 3-2 overtime comeback of their own over Switzerland. Heiskanen scored the game-tying goal with 72 seconds left in regulation<\/a>. Roope Hintz, Mikko Rantanen and Esa Lindell all assisted on either the game-tying or game-winning goal.<\/p>\n

If only we could\u2019ve seen the locker room\u2019s reaction to that finish.<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @Lassimak<\/a><\/p>\n

Quinn Hughes\u2019 overtime winner lifts U.S. past Sweden, into Olympic semifinals<\/a>Miro Heiskanen scores late game-tying goal as Finland escapes Switzerland at Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 While about 70% of the Dallas Stars were back in Frisco on Wednesday for their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1638,102,104,103,1115,3630,37810,2486,3631],"class_list":["post-170747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-brief","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-stars","tag-miro-heiskanen","tag-olympics","tag-stars","tag-thomas-harley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}