Lehkonen OT goal leads Finland in comeback against Switzerland in Olympic quarterfinals

MILAN -- Artturi Lehkonen has a history of game-winning goals in the NHL.

He scored four of them in 2022 when the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, including the Cup-winning goal and the one to send them to the Final. In 2021, he scored the goal that put the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final.

So when the puck found his stick for Team Finland in overtime against Team Switzerland in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Tuesday, it was game over.

Lehkonen scored on a breakaway 3:32 into overtime to give Finland a stunning, come-from-behind 3-2 victory at Rho Arena that put the country into the semifinals of an Olympics with NHL players for the fifth time in six tries.

"He's just a smart hockey player with ice in his veins," said Finland forward Mikko Rantanen, who won the Cup with Lehkonen in Colorado in 2022. "He's never nervous in these games and it's fun to play with him. He does so many things well, but he can also score a lot."

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: Switzerland-Finland

Finland trailed 2-0 with a little more than six minutes remaining in the third period, but Sebastian Aho (13:54) and Miro Heiskanen (18:48) scored to force overtime and set up Lehkonen's heroics.

The winning play started innocently enough, with Anton Lundell carrying the puck out of the Finland defensive zone. As Lehkonen was sneaking around Switzerland defenseman Dean Kukan, Lundell hit his teammate in stride, and he walked in on goalie Leonardo Genoni and beat him with a wrist shot.

When asked about his propensity of scoring game-winning goals, Lehkonen humbly said, "Maybe sometimes it bounces for me, I guess."

Juuse Saros shook off two early goals and made 21 saves to get the win for Finland, which will play Canada in the semifinals Friday.

Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter scored and Genoni made 28 saves for fifth-seeded Switzerland, which was six minutes away from getting to the semifinals of the Olympics for the first time. But then the lead and the win vanished.

"That's sports, I guess," Switzerland captain Roman Josi said. "We played a really good game, a really good first period.

"It's hard to explain right now. It's sports."

Switzerland jumped to a 2-0 lead with goals 1:12 apart in the first period.

The first came when Switzerland's Ken Jager intercepted a pass from Saros behind the net and fed it to Riat, who buried into the open goal to make it a 1-0 game at 14:14.

The Swiss made it 2-0 at 15:26 when Niederreiter, who had just jumped off the bench, took a pass from Pius Suter at the top of the left face-off circle and blasted a one-timer over the glove of Saros, who appeared to be screened by Finland defenseman Niko Mikkola.

Then Switzerland, with eight NHL players in its lineup, went into shutdown mode to smother a Finland team made up completely of NHL players.

Finland, however, never lost faith.

"I think everybody still believed in our team," forward Eetu Luostarinen said, "and that you can never, never give up. So even if there's a minute left and we're down two, you can still score two. We just have to believe."

WATCH: Men's Hockey Highlights from the Olympic Winter Games

Finland finally got on the board with 6:06 left in regulation when Aho fired a wrist shot past Genoni, making it a 2-1 game.

Then with Saros pulled for an extra attacker, Heiskanen tied it with a shot that went off the stick of Switzerland defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler at the front of the net.

The goal with 1:12 remaining is the latest game-tying goal for Team Finland in an Olympic game with NHL players.

"That's 6-on-5, there's no room for fancy plays," Finland captain Mikael Granlund said. "You just have to put it to the net and we got the bounce, that's how you play 6-on-5."

Then came Lehkonen's turn to win the game, like he always seems do to. Since the start of the 2019-20 NHL season, he has scored seven game-winning goals in the playoffs.

"He's absolutely such a good hockey player," Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. "If I recalled he scored in the Stanley Cup Final, so that wasn't the first time he scored a big goal."


Finland now will turn its attention the semifinals, where it will look to repeat as gold medal winners after winning at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, which were held without NHL players. In the five previous Olympics with NHL players, Finland has was won bronze three times (1998, 2010, 2014) and silver once (2006).

"I'm really happy for our country," Rantanen said. "I know a lot of Finnish people were watching that game and for us to come back like that … it's remarkable and hopefully the Finnish people can enjoy this one tonight and then reset for tomorrow."

NOTES: Heiskanen’s goal is the third-latest game-tying goal in the playoffs of an Olympics with NHL players, behind Zach Parise of the United States (59:35, 2010 gold medal game against Canada) and Trevor Linden of Canada (58:57, 1998 semifinal against Czechia). … Finland became the second team to have a multigoal, third-period comeback win in an Olympic tournament featuring NHL players. Finland also did it in 2010 against Slovakia. ... Riat and Niederreiter's goals were the two fastest in an Olympic tournament featuring NHL players; Josi and Timo Meier had the previous record, scoring 1:44 apart for Switzerland during a preliminary round game against Czechia on Feb. 15.