Team Canada will play for a medal Sunday, and it’s the good one.

Whew. 

Albeit playing without the injured Sidney Crosby, the still-stacked all-star squad fell down early to the pesky Team Finland but rallied to triumph 3-2 in the Olympic semifinals in Milan.

They only waited till the final minute.

Trouble started early Friday, when Canada committed a pair of unforced errors at Milano Santagiulia Arena. First, a too-many-men penalty (they can call those here), then a poor decision by an overly aggressive Sam Bennett, who was sent to the box after crashing into Juuse Saros’s crease.

Mikko Rantanen lasered a puck on the ensuing power-play, and Canada found itself playing from behind for a second straight elimination game.

The Finns’ lead doubled in the second, when Erik Haula converted on a shorthanded breakaway, going backhand shelf on Jordan Binnington.

“We’re going to throw everything we have and (need) the best game we could play to have a chance to beat them. That’s a great challenge for us, but it should be a fun one, and we’ll be ready,” Finnish star Sebastian Aho said prior to puck drop. 

“We know that we have the firepower, but at the same time, we’re just going to do our job as well as we can and hopefully that’ll get us a good result.”

When Brad Marchand drew a high-sticking penalty, Canada’s Sam Reinhart — who had been skating through a quiet tournament — got his stick on a Cale Makar point shot.

Reinhart’s power-play marker chopped the Finns’ lead in half.

“Five-on-five, we’re carrying the play,” Reinhart said, following a second period in which the favourites outshot their opponents 14-3.

But the diminutive Saros stood tall. And the patient Finns packed the house, content to get outshot, wait for counterattacks. Or simply grip on tight.

Anton Lundell put it best: “We have four great lines. We just got to keep growing and take the time and space away from them.”

“Pretty much everyone on that team is such a good two-way player, so they defend really well,” Nick Suzuki acknowledged, characterizing this as Canada’s toughest test yet. “They can also play offensive really well.”

Most of us assumed Canada’s firepower, which racked up 20 goals in three round-robin games, would overwhelm all comers.

Alas, not the defending Olympic champs, who kept this one tight and tense.

Defenceman Shea Theodore, another breakout star on this game, came up clutch, blasting a point shot through a cluster of bodies, including Saros’s, with less than 10 minutes to go.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the winner, off a power-play feed from Connor McDavid, sending Canada to Sunday’s gold medal finale.

“I don’t care where you are, what tournament it is, the Finns always seem to be standing when it comes to medal time,” Canada’s coach Jon Cooper said. 

“And if you remotely take that team lightly, they’re going to bite you.”

The other Olympic semifinal features the undefeated Team USA versus scrappy Slovakia.

Fox’s Fast Five

• Crosby tested his suspected knee injury in a closed session Friday morning but was unable to play. As a result, McDavid wore Canada’s C, Cale Makar was given an A, and Nick Suzuki slid into Crosby’s vacated centre position between Mitch Marner and Mark Stone.

Prior to the game, Drew Doughty was asked if this is the best hockey he’s seen McDavid play.

“That’s tough. I mean, I’ve seen him play this well against me many times,” Doughty replied. “I don’t know if he’s playing better or what, but it’s obviously on a bigger stage. So, for him to handle that pressure and play the way he’s playing, it’s pretty special.”

• Five games into the event, Cooper is still searching for the optimal wingers for MacKinnon. Seth Jarvis, Canada’s final injury replacement, got a top-six look Friday. 

It wasn’t long before Cooper went nuclear, throwing MacKinnon up on McDavid’s wing.

The coach is still scrambling for chemistry on a second scoring line with one game to go.

• Play-by-play czar Chris Cuthbert noted early that no NHLer has scored more goals on Binnington than Mikko Rantanen (15). 

Minutes later, Rantanen opened the scoring with an absolute snipe off a power-play draw.

• Juuse Saros hasn’t wowed in Nashville this season, posting an .892 save percentage, but he’s been stellar in Milan.

• Throwing Bennett, Marchand, and Tom Wilson all on one line is, uh, something.