They were expected to win the gold, but Canada’s men’s hockey team will leave the Pyeongchang Winter Games with a bronze medal.
A day after losing to 60-1 outsider Germany in the semifinal, the nine-time Olympic champion defeated the Czech Republic 6-4 in the bronze medal match.
It was some consolation for a side lacking any of its National Hockey League stars, but Canada is an ice hockey superpower and the winner of three of the past four Olympic titles, and the players carried the hopes of a hockey-mad nation.
Canada raced 3-1 ahead in the first period but couldn’t extend its advantage in the second before surging 6-2 clear early in the third.
But some anxious moments followed as the Czechs clawed back two goals with two minutes to go despite being a man down.
Canada, though, hung on to avoid a first Games without an ice hockey medal since Nagano in 1998, when the Czech Republic won gold.
The men’s hockey final will be held on Sunday, the final day of the Olympics, between Germany and the Olympic Athlete from Russia team.
No German team has reached the podium in ice hockey since West Germany took bronze at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck.