Coffee and beer were both flowing as bleary-eyed fans in Western Canada tuned in to the breakfast-time Olympic hockey semifinal against Finland.

The Games in northern Italy are taking place eight time zones ahead of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and nine hours ahead for folks in British Columbia.

It’s been a similar situation to other Olympic Games over the past decade, held halfway around the world in Paris, France (2024), Beijing, China (2022), Tokyo, Japan (2020) and Pyeongchang, South Korea (2018).

At the Shark Club Sports Bar and Grill in Vancouver, the 7:40 a.m. puck drop didn’t deter more than 100 fans from soaking up the action and watching Canada win the match 3-2.

There were servings of breakfast tacos, home fries, eggs and bacon, alongside coffee, Guinness and mimosas.

2:49
Toronto relaxes liquor laws to allow 6 a.m. serving during Olympics

Simon Marshall only arrived in Canada the night before from Australia but managed to pick up a Canada jersey to watch the match.

He was jet-lagged and admitted he was still learning the finer points of the game.

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“I watched ‘Mighty Ducks,’ 1, 2 and 3 for the second time recently, just to educate myself,” said Marshall, who noted he typically just follows the Summer Games.

“I’m just a sport lover, so I’m trying to embrace the Winter Olympics.”

Malik Dhami and John Cookson, who were sipping coffee, not beer, at the Vancouver bar said despite the early hour, it was important to share the fan experience.

“Sure, we could watch it in the four walls of our own homes,” explained Dhami. “As a Canadian, you’ve got to come out.”

“We were just looking for a place that would have the game on and would have it loud,” Cookson said.

General manager Murray Saunders said the city extended the bar’s liquor licence for the Olympics and it could be serving beer as early as 5:30 a.m. for Sunday’s pre-dawn men’s final.

“It’s cheering on Canada,” Saunders said about why people came to his bar so early on Friday.

He said the Vancouver Goldeneyes hockey team was in the packed bar on Thursday to watch the “amazing” Canada-U.S. women’s final, and the bar is already fully booked for the men’s final this weekend.

At Kelly’s Pub in downtown Edmonton, Amelia Carruthers said watching a game at home “doesn’t have the same camaraderie.”

“You have these fans here cheering and groaning and it’s fun,” she said, after ordering breakfast with her daughter Chloe Paré.

“The tater tots are amazing,” she added, saying she was a little taken aback that others were ordering beer.

6:11
Canada at the Olympics: A look back at a century of moments

At a nearby table, Schyla Courtorielle sat with a friend and her dad, who was working on a laptop.

“We can plug in and have the game on in the background while still working,” said Courtorielle, adding she had taken in a lot of early morning Olympic hockey so far.

“We start with breakfast and tea, and once we have some food in our system, then we’ll move to the booze,” she said.

Like watching hockey at a bar at night, the breakfast show had fans on their feet at times, with the Shark Club crowd singing a round of Stompin’ Tom Connor’s The Hockey Song after Canada’s win.

Hockey fans will do it all over again this weekend: the puck drops on Sunday’s gold medal match at 5 a.m. PT/8 a.m. ET.

— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

An hour before the sun is up in Ontario on Sunday, restaurants and bars will be allowed to start serving alcohol to excited hockey fans.

To coincide with the Canadian men’s ice hockey gold medal game, the provincial government will temporarily change licensing rules to allow alcohol sales to begin at 6 a.m.

“The entire country will be watching on Sunday morning as our men’s hockey team plays for Olympic gold,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote in a social media post after Canada narrowly beat Finland to advance.

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“To help us all celebrate Team Canada, the province will be allowing bars and restaurants across the province to sell alcohol starting at 6:00 a.m. EST. Let’s all come together, support local businesses and cheer on Team Canada!”

Ontario normally allows alcohol sales from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m., with extended hours for New Year’s Eve.

An exemption in the act allows Toronto to decree its own opening times, which have been set to 6 a.m. since the beginning of the Olympics.

The gold medal game will begin at 8:10 a.m. on Sunday.

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Amber Glenn needed to give herself some reassurance.

On Friday, the American figure skater hit the ice to complete the jump that knocked her down in the standings during Tuesday’s short program and ultimately cost her a medal at the Milano Cortina Games.

Glenn, 26, shared the moment on TikTok, taking viewers with her as she completed the jump — a triple loop — which she failed to execute Tuesday.

She completed a double loop instead and was given zero points for an invalid element, with her score of 67.39 dropping her to 13th place.

“Come with me to do the jump that cost me an Olympic medal,” Glenn said in the video.

Upon skating backwards, Glenn launched into the jump and landed it cleanly.

“That’s fine. I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said immediately afterwards in relief. “Everything’s fine.”

The Texas native’s short program left her in tears as she skated off the ice.

Glenn rebounded Thursday with a season-best free skate score of 147.52.

In the four-minute program, Glenn landed the triple loop and the triple axel, which she is known for, and pumped her fist after she finished.

Her only mistake came in touching the ice on her final jump.

“I just thought, ‘I’m going to do what I do best, which is enjoy skating,’” Glenn said, “and that’s what I did today.”

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Glenn finished fifth with a total of 214.91, with her teammate, Alysa Liu, taking gold to end the U.S. women’s 24-year figure skating drought with a score of 226.79.

Although her individual run at the Olympics didn’t result in a medal, Glenn is walking away from this year’s games with her head held high.

“I’m ecstatic. I’m happy that I did my job,” she said afterward. “Of course there’s so much that I wish I could have done better, and there’s going to be so many ‘What ifs?’ after this. But to tell myself that I did what I could, that’s enough.”

Glenn is the oldest woman to represent the United States in singles figure skating at the Olympics since 1928.

Blue gloves and hockey sticks flew in the air like confetti.

Hilary Knight skated toward the red, white and blue mosh pit on the ice after Megan Keller’s epic game-winning goal in overtime.

The U.S. women’s hockey team, the heavy favorites to win it all at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, ultimately did what everyone expected it to do Thursday afternoon when it clinched the goal medal with a 2-1 win against rival Canada.

It wasn’t easy. Thursday’s win tested the Americans in a way they hadn’t been throughout the Winter Games.

A Quebec costume designer is stepping into the global spotlight at the 2026 Winter Olympics, dressing some of the world’s top figure skaters as they compete on the sport’s biggest stage.

Mathieu Caron, a former ballroom dancer from Quebec, has been creating elaborate costumes for more than a decade. He says his fascination with glittering fabrics and dramatic designs began early.

“I was very fascinated by the costumes, all the bling-bling and the fabrics. So I decided to go to fashion school,” Caron told Global News.

After studying fashion at LaSalle College in Montreal, Caron launched his company designing clothing for ballroom dancers. His work soon expanded into the figure skating and ice dancing world.

By 2018, his creations had reached the Olympic podium. Caron designed the costumes worn by Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir during their gold medal-winning performance set to Moulin Rouge.

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Now in Milan for the 2026 Winter Games, Caron says 28 athletes from 10 countries are wearing his designs. Among them are American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, as well as Japanese skater Ami Nakai.

1:30
Milano Cortina 2026: Canada’s Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier win bronze in Olympic ice dance

Caron says each costume can take up to 150 hours to complete, from the first sketch to the final rhinestone. Caron says the process involves close collaboration with athletes, coaches and choreographers to ensure the design complements the music and enhances movement on the ice.

“We have meetings with athletes, but also with the coaches, choreographers. We talk about the music and the vision of the program,” he said.

His studio team includes other designers, cutters, seamstresses, pattern makers, and painters — all working to bring the garments to life.

The price reflects the labour involved. Caron says costumes typically range from $3,500 to $8,000, depending on the hours required and the complexity of the design.

While figure skating remains a central focus, the designer said he hopes to expand into other creative fields, including Broadway musicals and designing full looks for touring artists.

For now, Caron says he feels fortunate to see his creations glide across Olympic ice, and in some cases, onto the podium.

For the full story, watch the video above.

1:43
Milano-Cortina Olympics: Canada’s speed skaters win gold, bronze after men’s hockey beats Czechia

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MILAN — Megan Keller wouldn’t say she’s consistently practiced the jaw-dropping move she pulled off for the overtime golden goal of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics on Thursday night at Santagiulia Arena. 

Her USA teammates, however, were unfazed. 

“The Megan Keller,” Hilary Knight called it. 

After collecting a long pass from Taylor Heise, Keller poked the puck around Canadian defenseman Claire Thompson before backhanding it past goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to secure a 2-1 OT victory and the Americans’ spot at the top of the podium. 

“Just saw the change happen. Had some space. [Taylor] Heise made a great pass,” said Keller, who finished tied for the most points in the tournament (nine) with fellow defenseman Caroline Harvey. “Taking a chance trying to get to the net. But, obviously, we would not be in this position if our goaltender didn’t play outstanding in Aerin Frankel. Huge late goal by [Hilary Knight]. Top to bottom, this entire group, we stuck together the whole way. Really proud to be a part of this group.” 

Some of her U.S. teammates saw the game-winning goal in real time. Others did not at all, as the Americans halted the 3-on-3 overtime.

Their celebration took over the ice, making it difficult for anybody to see the replay. 

Keller said the team talked about playing to win and not to lose in overtime. In such a situation, she noted, it’s easy to get a little nervous about making a move.

When she saw she had a 1-on-1 with a Canadian defender, Keller said she thought: “Why not?” 

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

“I saw her open her hips, and I’m like, ‘Oh, she’s gone,’ ” Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “I didn’t see the end. It happened so fast, but when I saw her open her hips, get the puck and like she had legs. I’m like, ‘This is going in the net.’… I look forward to seeing the replay.” 

The golden goal secured a second Olympic gold medal for Keller, as well as her third overall, after she won with Team USA in 2018 and settled for silver in 2022. 

Named captain of the PWHL’s Boston Fleet ahead of her third season, Keller went into the Olympic break with five goals and six assists through 14 games.

The Farmington, Mich., native emerged as one of the most dominant defensemen in NCAA history while skating for Boston College. 

“I thought it was Connor McDavid out there,” said Laila Edwards, who later corrected herself and said Auston Matthews in order to name an American NHLer. 

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For Canadians, watching a hockey showdown against the U.S. can feel like a tale as old as time.

Preparing to turn off the work laptops — or at least, turning on another screen, too. Or maybe watching the game in another time zone means staying up late and knowing you’ll pay for it at work the next day.

Cuing up the gold medal hockey matchup between Canada and the U.S.

Pretending to … cough … work.

Canada and the U.S. are the only countries to win Olympic gold medals since women’s hockey was first introduced in the Olympics in 1998. The men’s tournament is still being written, as Canada looks to take on Finland on Friday in hopes of making it to the gold medal game on Sunday, potentially meeting the U.S. there.

But historically, the margin of defeat among both countries has been small, and the games are virtually guaranteed to be nail-biters as bigger geopolitical tensions sharpen the already intense rivalries between Team Canada and Team USA.

Here is a look back at some of the biggest milestone moments in past hockey showdowns between the two nations.

While not an Olympic tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 provided National Hockey League (NHL) players the opportunity to play in an international tournament, since there was a 12-year gap in NHL players attending the Olympics.

It was clear that the desire to watch international hockey was high for NHL fans, as the final game between Canada and the U.S. was watched by 16.1 million viewers in North America, with 9.3 million viewers in the United States and 6.3 million in Canada.

This made the game the second-most-watched hockey game in the past decade.

The game itself also did not disappoint, with three fights breaking out within the first nine seconds of the first period, setting the stage for both an exciting game and a historic matchup between the rivals.

Canada took home the win thanks to an overtime goal by Connor McDavid, officially starting the countdown for the 2026 Olympic Games.

The 4 Nations Face-Off came at a time of rising political tensions between Canada and the U.S., with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to annex Canada.

“What I’d like to see — Canada become our 51st state,” Trump said on Feb. 3, 2025.

“Some people say that would be a long shot. If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100 per cent certain that they’d become a state.”

Ahead of the Canada/U.S. matchup, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would be “calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State.”

2:27
Canada vs. U.S.: hockey rivalry heats up amid political tensions

Canadian fans booed The Star-Spangled Banner when it played before the opening faceoff, and the three fights came not long after.

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Once Canada secured the win, former prime minister Justin Trudeau posted on X, “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.”

Team Canada snagged the gold medal with a 3-2 win against the U.S. at Wukesong Sports Centre on Feb. 17, 2022. It was the fifth time Canada took home gold in women’s hockey at an Olympic Games.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice to lead Canada, with Sarah Nurse adding a goal and an assist while Ann-Renée Desbiens, stopping 38 of 40 shots, earned the win in net.

Poulin also became the first player to score in four Olympic finals, according to Hockey Canada.

Canada also recorded a new single-tournament record of 57 goals, continuing to flex its talent across the roster.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) reported that this game was watched by 2.7 million Canadians and 3.54 million Americans, making it the most-watched Olympic event that year.

Despite the millions of viewers, only 834 spectators were able to attend the game, since it was the first Olympics following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The spotlight from the game helped mark a new era of women’s hockey. The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was founded in August 2023, just 18 months after the gold medal game.

Thursday’s gold medal game will be the first Olympics finals with the PWHL in action, not only providing players with teams to play on but also somewhere for fans to continue to consistently watch women’s hockey.

The U.S. women’s team snagged a victory against the Canadians with a 3-2 win, ending a streak of four straight Canadian gold medals in past games.

The championship was decided in a shootout for the first time in Olympic history.

Despite Canada owning a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, American forward Monique Lamoureux-Morando scored at the 13:39 minute mark of the third period to equalize the score.

4:29
Canada celebrates its most successful Winter Games

American forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson eventually scored the game-winning goal against Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados.

Despite the 11 p.m. eastern start time, the game garnered 2.9 million viewers, which demonstrated the rise in viewership of women’s hockey from PyeongChang 2018 to Milan-Cortina 2026.

Once again, the Canadian women’s team came out victorious against the U.S. with another 3-2 win in overtime to take home the Olympic gold medal.

Marie-Philip Poulin and Brianne Jenner scored for the Canadians while Meghan Dunn and Alex Carpenter scored for the Americans.

Poulin netted the eventual game-winning goal at the 8:10 minute mark of the game.

This game earned Poulin the nickname ‘Captain Clutch’ for her reliable play that brought her team over the top.

In what serves as one of the greatest Canadian sporting moments, thanks to the ‘Golden Goal,’ the Canadian men’s team beat the U.S. on home ice in a 3-2 Olympic overtime win.

Despite a 2-0 Canada lead halfway through the second period, the U.S. tied the game thanks to goals from Ryan Kesler and Zach Parise.

It was then-22-year-old Sidney Crosby who scored in overtime at the 7:40 minute mark to bring the home crowd to its feet.

The game itself is the most-watched televised event in Canadian history, with 26.5 million people in Canada tuning in at some point and marking a victorious end to the 17-day tournament.

Three days before that gold medal win by the Canadian men’s team, the Canadian women’s team had already beaten the Americans in their Olympic final game to claim the gold medal by a 2-0 score.

Poulin scored the game’s only goals while Canadian Szabados posted a 29-save shutout.

Ontario’s education minister has directed the province’s school boards to stream Team Canada’s Olympic hockey games during classroom times so students can “rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

Premier Doug Ford announced the idea in a social media post on Wednesday evening, saying he had told Education Minister Paul Calandra to work out how schools could make it possible.

“To help everyone get in the spirit of the games, I’ve directed the Minister of Education to make sure all Ontario students are able to watch the remaining Team Canada hockey games that take place during school hours, starting with tomorrow’s game,” the premier wrote.

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The Canadian women’s hockey team plays its gold medal match against the USA at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, while the men’s semi-final against Finland will be played at 10:40 a.m. on Friday.

Calandra confirmed Thursday morning he had moved on Ford’s request and told schools they must let students watch the games.

“In recognition of the Olympics and this exciting time for Team Canada, I am directing all school boards to let students tune in to both the Women’s and Men’s hockey games during school hours,” he said in his own social media post.

“Big games like these aren’t just about the outcome, they’re a chance to rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

The Winter Olympics wrap up on Feb. 22.

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