Milano Cortina 2026 Semifinals Review: Farmer fires USA to fifth consecutive final

Team USA is one game away from their fifth consecutive and sixth overall Paralympic Winter Games gold after defeating Czechia 6-1 on Friday (13 March) at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. 

USA’s all-time Paralympic scoring leader Declan Farmer recorded his fourth hat-trick in as many games and finished with six points. David Eustace, Josh Pauls and Noah Grove added the other goals for the reigning champions in a comeback victory after Michal Geier opened the scoring for the Czechs.

The United States will now wait for the winner of the second semifinal between Canada and China, while Czechia will play for their first-ever Paralympic medal in Sunday’s bronze-medal game (15).

 “Everyone, before the tournament, put us and Canada into it, but we have to be the ones to go out there and earn it. It's an incredible feeling to play for gold,” said Farmer, who praised the opponents for their hard-fought win.

“They have a great goaltender in Patrick [Sedlacek]. Defensively, on the penalty kill, they're definitely playing a little bit more condensed than they usually did, so it was a bit to get used to. 

“Our group did a good job of just sticking with our process and eventually getting rewarded with some goals.” 

USA forward Eustace added:

“The Czech team pushed us very hard. They played very well defensively. They came out hitting hard. But we knew that it was going to be that way, we just had to capitalise on it, and we finished it off. "

“We just got the puck in deep. We just kept moving it across the road. We kept trying to push it. We just kept pushing them, kept shooting the puck, and it eventually went in.”

USA 🇺🇸 has never lost a Paralympic final. They’ll play their sixth on Sunday. 🏒🥇@milanocortina26 @Paralympics pic.twitter.com/Ak221UpnAw

— Para Ice Hockey (@paraicehockey) March 13, 2026

Czech captain said his team played against "the best in the world" at Milano Santagiulia.

"We are feeling good. The opponents showed their quality, and they are, deservedly, the best in the world. 

“The first period was not bad for us in terms of defence but, unfortunately, afterwards they broke through and showed their strength.”

Czech goaltender Martin Sedlacek made 35 saves to keep his team in contention, with Czechia spending long stretches clogging the crease and blocking shooting lanes. They killed an early USA power play and then capitalised on their own man advantage when Pavel Kubes spotted Geier breaking behind the USA defence on the weak side, sending him in alone to score 5:08 into the game.

USA responded quickly. Travis Dodson carried the puck toward the Czech net and fed Eustace, whose shot was stopped by Sedlacek. Farmer pounced on the rebound and lifted it into the net for his 12th goal and 19th point of Milano Cortina 2026, breaking the Paralympic single‑tournament records for both most goals and most points.

Eustace and Farmer took control in the middle frame, combining for two goals in 19 seconds to put USA up 3-1. First, Eustace squeezed a shot inside the far post at 4:59, with Farmer assisting. Moments later, Eustace sent a cross‑crease pass to Farmer, who hammered it in. By the second intermission, the line of Farmer, Eustace and Dodson had produced all USA points.

Pauls ended Czechia’s hopes early in the third period. After a setup from Farmer and Noah Grove, the USA captain waited out Sedlacek and slid a low shot under the goaltender’s pad at the left post. Farmer completed his hat-trick two and a half minutes later, and Grove closed the scoring, with Brody Roybal assisting on both plays – first alongside Pauls, then together with Farmer.

USA goaltender Griffin Lamarre stopped four of five shots in the semifinal win.

The United States have never lost a Paralympic Winter Games final and took gold at Salt Lake 2002, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.