Juuse Saros sounds off on Sam Bennett incident in Olympic hockey loss to Canada

Story by

Steve Silverman, ClutchPoints

Sat, Feb 21, 2026 ·

2 min read

Juuse Saros sounds off on Sam Bennett incident in Olympic hockey loss to Canada appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

It took an epic comeback by Canada to get past Finland in the semifinal round of the Olympic hockey tournament. Canada rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat their opponents 3-2 and set up a gold medal match up with the United States on Sunday.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the winning goal with 36 seconds to go, setting off a huge celebration for Team Canada. Sam Reinhart and Shea Theodore also scored for Canada after Mikko Rantanen and Erik Haula had scored for the Finns.

Sam Bennett of Team Canada had been called for goalie interference when he made contact with Finland goalie Jusse Saros at the 16:52 mark of the first period. Saros was unhappy with Bennett’s actions, and he accused the Florida Panthers star of running into him on purpose. “He does that all the time, so it’s a part of his game,” Saros said . “I think you know whether it’s on purpose.”

While the Canadians were kept off the scoreboard until well past the halfway mark of the second period, there was no panic among Team Canada’s core players. Superstar Connor McDavid did not score a goal in the game, but he did have a pair of assists, including the primary set up on MacKinnon’s game winner.

“You could definitely feel the sense of calm, having been through that before,” McDavid said. “We understood we were in a tough spot, and we had to find a way to get out of it. And we did.”

Canada has opened as a small minus-125 favorite over Team USA in the gold medal game, per DraftKings . The Americans are listed at minus-105.