Ahead of his team's fourth game at the Worlds in Group B against Norway, Macklin Celebrini accidentally missed the pregame handshakes at the BCF Arena in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Fast forward to the postgame, Celebrini realized his mistake from the pregame and issued an apology to the referee for the same.

In a clip posted by IIHF Men’s Worlds on their Instagram account, one of the referees could be seen telling Celebrini that he had missed shaking hands with Norway’s captain, Andreas Martinsen, before the start of the game.

To this, the Canadian captain replied, “Sorry about not coming at the start, I really forgot.”  

In response, the referee told him, “We just wanna shake your hands right now; we appreciate that, no worries,” to which he was thankful to both referees for helping him through it.

Celebrini once again said “sorry” to the referee for forgetting the pregame handshakes, to which the referee suggested to him that he just needs to get used to the responsibility of captaincy.

The teenager responded to the referee in kind by telling him, “I am.”

Just like the referees, the fans can also give Celebrini the benefit of the doubt for missing pregame handshakes since he is new to the captaincy role in his international career with Canada.

At just 19 years of age, Celebrini became the youngest captain in the history of the senior men's national team for the 2026 IIHF World Championship.

Canada defeated Norway 6-5 in a thriller with an overtime goal

In the Group B game of the 2026 IIHF World Championship, Canada defeated Norway with a 6-5 score line, with an overtime goal at the BCF Arena in Fribourg, Switzerland. Just 29 seconds into overtime, Mark Scheifele completed the hat trick by scoring the winner, thanks to an assist from Evan Bouchard.

Bouchard recorded three assists on the day in a thrilling game in which Canada came from behind on three separate occasions.

The Canadians initially trailed Norway 2-0 in the first period before leveling the scores 2-2 towards the end of it, with Scheifele scoring twice. The second period ended after Canada tied it 3-3 through Gabriel Vilardi’s goal, but Norway went 5-4 ahead in the third period with just 10:03 remaining on the clock.

Canada took the game into overtime when Ryan O’Reilly scored with the help of Bouchard and just 1:39 left before literally stealing from the Norwegians in sudden death.

Just a couple of days later, the Canadians had a far more comfortable game at the Worlds, winning 3-1 against Slovenia under their new captain, Macklin Celebrini. After that, they are currently leading the Group B standings with 14 points in five games.

Will Canada keep their momentum in the last two games at the 2026 IIHF World Championship? Tell us in the comments.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason