Denmark has less than 20 hockey arenas in its entire country. Canada’s hockey pedigree needs no introduction.
Take it a step further. In Thursday’s IIHF World Championship quarterfinal matchup, Denmark’s roster featured exactly one NHL player. Canada’s roster? Led by two of the all-time greats, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, with NHL stars all around them.
Cue the Herb Brooks speech from the movie Miracle: If they played 10 times, Canada might win nine. “But not tonight.”
This matchup was the singular time that the Danes could do the impossible. Actually hosting the prestigious tournament on home ice, they gave the home crowd a miracle.
In a 1-1 game with less than a minute left, Denmark served the puck in front of net. It deflected off Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington.
There waited Nick Olesen for the biggest goal of his life.
DENMARK STUNS CANADA WITH A LAST-MINUTE GOAL AT #MENSWORLDS IN THE QUARTERFINALS. UNREAL CINEMA 🍿
(via @TSN_Sports) pic.twitter.com/xKcY0RNC8j
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 22, 2025
Just a chunk of seconds later, Denmark had advanced, stunning Canada in a Miracle on Ice-level upset.
Olesen is a 29-year old veteran of world hockey. He currently plays in the Czech Republic, and before that, he played in the Swedish Hockey League.
He’s a hockey journeyman, and he just scored one of the most shocking opposing goals in Canadian hockey history.
Denmark’s only NHL player, Nikolaj Ehlers, scored the equalizing goal with three minutes left. And then it was Olesen who won it.
Danish goalie Frederik Dichow made 39 saves on 40 shots.
Not in a million years would Canada have expected this, but in one of the greatest upsets you’ll ever see, Denmark stunned the world.
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