The Olympic semifinals are set, and two San Jose Sharks players won’t be there.

On Friday, Macklin Celebrini and Canada will face Finland at 7:40 AM PT, in one semifinal. Then, Pavol Regenda and Slovakia will look to upset the United States at 12:10 PM PT, in the other.

This will determine who will play for the bronze medal on Saturday and the gold on Sunday.

Alex Wennberg and Sweden, and Philipp Kurashev and Switzerland, are headed home though.

Macklin Celebrini

Celebrini, once again, was equal to the biggest hockey stage in the world.

Celebrini scored a goal and added two assists in Canada’s 4-3 OT victory over Czechia.

Celebrini played 22:36, second among all Canadian forwards, except for Nathan MacKinnon, and just ahead of Connor McDavid.

Celebrini found a soft spot for a rush strike early in the game, after McDavid pickpocketed David Pastrnak. The San Jose Sharks star added a secondary assist on a MacKinnon power play goal, and then, in OT, his neutral zone drop pass paved the way for a marvelous Mitch Marner individual effort that carried Canada to the semifinals.

My takeaway from all this and from watching Celebrini all tournament? Except for some veteran refinement, the 19-year-old is, for all intents and purposes, the equal of McDavid and MacKinnon, the more or less undisputed two-best players in the world.

Symbolically, after Sidney Crosby left the game with a lower-body injury, Celebrini was tapped to take the all-time great’s place on the top power play unit.

At home, Celebrini’s San Jose Sharks teammates, back at practice, marveled at the 19-year-old’s performance. Not that anybody is surprised.

“We see it everyday, right? And in our games,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, “but the rest of the world is now seeing it.”

Ryan Reaves told the Mercury News: “He’s the best player in the world.”

Adam Gaudette on the Mack3 line: “It’s crazy. We were joking earlier that Mack is going to come back here and not want to play with any of us now. But, man, the speed on that line and the skill, it’s ridiculous.” #SJSharks

— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) February 18, 2026

Warsofsky, on center Celebrini’s seamless transition to wing at the Olympics: “You can put him on defense and he’d be just as good.”

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 18, 2026

Pavol Regenda

Not to be outdone, Regenda led Slovakia with three points, two goals and an assist, in a 6-2 rout of Germany. The big winger did all this damage in just 14:27.

Regenda got Slovakia off to the right foot with a deflection goal on an Erik Cernak shot to give them a first period 1-0 lead. Next, Regenda cleared the puck out, linemate Milo Kelemen won a race for it, putting in a gorgeous backhand breakaway to make it 2-0. Finally, early in the final frame, Regenda gave his country some insurance with a 5-1 rebound strike.

Alex Wennberg

Wennberg played 13:22 in Sweden’s 2-1 OT loss to the United States.

In five games as Tre Kroner’s fourth-line center and a regular penalty killer, Wennberg went pointless, averaging 13:01 a night.

Reação dos pais do Wenny com a derrota da Suécia 😭💔 pic.twitter.com/LaahGFttkX

— acervo sj sharks (@acervosharks) February 18, 2026

Philipp Kurashev

Kurashev notched an assist in 18:51 in Switzerland’s 3-2 OT loss to Finland. The Swiss had built a 2-0 lead before a furious Finnish final frame comeback.

In place of the injured Kevin Fiala, Switzerland promoted Kurashev to first-line winger midway through the tournament. In five appearances, Kurashev had one goal and three points, averaging 16:51 a game.