2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

It was classic blue-and-white magic. Hannes Bjorninen scored the third-period winner as Finland captured its first Olympic men’s hockey gold medal ever with a 2-1 victory over the ROC team on Sunday. Coach Jukka Jalonen’s team rallied from a 1-0 first-period deficit to give their nation of 5.5 million the thrill of a lifetime.

Just 31 seconds into the third period, the relentless veterans Finns pounced in the ROC zone. Assistant captain Marko Anttila, the giant hero of the 2019 gold medal run, accepted Atte Ohtamaa’s pass from the left point, circled to the middle, and fired a shot that Bjorninen tipped past Russian starter Ivan Fedotov.

Even under the unprecedented circumstances of a global pandemic, Beijing’s National Indoor Stadium will always hold a special place in the hearts of Finnish hockey lovers. This gold medal has been nearly a century in the making. Finland joined the IIHF family in 1928, played its first World Championship in 1939 in Switzerland, and made its Olympic debut in 1952.

As widely predicted, this was a full-fledged defensive duel, fought in the trenches along the boards. Shots favoured the Finns 31-17.

Ville Pokka had the other goal for Finland, and Ohtamaa added two assists.

Mikhail Grigorenko replied for the ROC team.

Finland has finally cured its “close but no cigar” syndrome at the Olympics. In the 1988 tournament in Calgary, played under a round-robin format, the Finns edged the Soviet Union 2-1 to earn the silver medal. In 2006, Nicklas Lidstrom’s third-period goal and Henrik Lundqvist’s last-minute save on Olli Jokinen gave Sweden a 3-2 final victory and the Finns went home with silver.

It was the second consecutive Olympic final appearance for a Russian squad, although this time they settled for silver under rookie head coach Alexei Zhamnov. In the 2018 final in PyeongChang, the Olympic Athletes from Russia defeated Germany 4-3 in overtime on Kirill Kaprizov’s goal.

In 1992, the Commonwealth of Independent States captured the gold medal in Albertville. Prior to that, the Soviet Union captured seven Olympic gold medals. No team under the Russian flag has ever won Olympic gold.

This is the ultimate feather in Jalonen’s cap. The 58-year-old Riihimaki native led the Finns to their second and third IIHF World Championship titles of all time in 2011 and 2019, and added a silver medal at last year’s Worlds in Riga. He also masterminded a World Junior crown in Helsinki in 2016. And Jalonen, who was behind the bench for the 2010 bronze medal in Vancouver, now owns an Olympic gold medal.

There was little to choose between Finnish starting goalie Harri Sateri and ROC’s Fedotov. Sateri had an excellent tournament, swapping roles with Jussi Olkinuora, whom he backed up last year in Riga. Despite losing in the final, the towering Fedotov made a name for himself in his IIHF debut at age 25, playing every game in Beijing.

Arguably, these two teams entered the Games as co-favourites for men’s gold, and it was fitting they fought it out in the end. Neither side boasted its biggest superstars. Finnish captain Valtteri Filppula, who dominated on faceoffs in Beijing, was the best-known ex-NHLer with a Stanley Cup ring from the 2008 Detroit Red Wings and 1,056 career NHL games.

This was a battle of wits and grit between familiar foes. Not only do 17 Finns on the Beijing roster play in the KHL, but Jalonen also coached both ROC captain Vadim Shipachyov and now-ROC GM Ilya Kovalchuk with SKA St. Petersburg in 2013-14.

After a grinding start, the Finns got aggressive in the ROC zone. Bjorninen got two cracks at the puck right in front, forcing Fedotov to be sharp. But then the versatile Jokerit forward, who previously captained Lahti Pelicans, was sent to the sin bin for high-sticking Yegor Yakolev behind the goal line at 6:59.

Just 18 seconds later, ROC cashed in with their first man advantage. Grigorenko waltzed into the right faceoff circle, scoped out the situation, and zipped a blocker-side shot past Sateri with Pavel Karnaukhov providing the screen.

It was the first goal and point of these Olympics for Grigorenko, a CSKA Moscow veteran who spent last season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It came on just ROC’s second shot of the game. Nikita Gusev, who had four points in OAR’s 2018 triumph over Germany, got his tournament-leading sixth assist on the play.

After ROC’s Damir Sharipzyanov was penalized for a huge cross-check on Leo Komarov, the Finns exerted good pressure with their first power play, but couldn’t find the range.

Finland outshot their opponents 15-6 in the first period, with ROC vying to clog up the neutral zone in a reversal of these teams’ usual roles. Bjorninen had a great chance on a give-and-go with Saku Maenalanen just before the buzzer but couldn’t convert.

In the second period, the Finns stayed gritty on the forecheck, and Pokka notched the equalizer with a drifting shot from the right point through traffic that dipped and fooled Fedotov at 3:28. Bjorninen atoned for his earlier errors with a nice backhanded pass to set it up.

It was Pokka’s first goal ever in senior IIHF competition. The defensive-minded Avangard Omsk blueliner played 28 Worlds games prior to his Olympic debut in Beijing.

More Finnish pressure followed when Kirill Semyonov was dinged for an undisciplined elbow on Valtteri Kemilainen. But the Russians were as ferocious in their shot-blocking as the Finns were at firing the puck. The trend continued at even strength.

The best second-period ROC chance saw Arseni Gritsyuk, the semi-final shootout hero against Sweden, navigating into the slot surrounded by Suomi sweaters and pivoting to zing a shot just past Sateri’s right post.

After Bjorninen’s third-period go-ahead marker, Finland had to tap into its reserves of sisu (Finnish for “grit”) as the Russians attacked Sateri’s crease vigorously. Fedotov made a couple of great saves off Maenalanen from the slot to keep it a one-goal game.

The Finns did everything but score during a power play with less than nine minutes left in regulation after Sergei Andronov tripped up Anttila. Shortly afterwards, veteran defenceman Juuso Hietanen rang one off the cross bar on the rush. Zhamnov pulled Fedotov late for the extra attacker, but his troops couldn’t get anything going, and the Finns went wild with joy at the final horn.

Finnish supporters revere their first World Championship title from 1995, which featured a 4-1 gold medal win over Sweden and a top line of Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, and Ville Peltonen. It’s hard to imagine just how much they’ll celebrate this Winter Games gold, both now and in the future. With or without NHLers participating, it’s a crowning glory.

Finland only beat the Soviet Union once (1988) in seven Olympics meetings dating back to 1960. In the post-Soviet era, Finland’s record against Russian squads stands at six wins and three losses. The Finns have now won the last four Olympic meetings. The last one was the famous 3-1 quarter-final victory in Sochi.

Sunday was an historic day all around, as Slovakia also won its first Olympic medal, shutting out Sweden 4-0 in the bronze game.

The Finns head into the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Tampere and Helsinki with hopes of becoming the second team ever to win the Olympics and Worlds in the same year and the first to complete the feat on home ice. Sweden is the only nation to “do the double” before, in Turin and Riga in 2006.

Source: iihf.com

Twenty years ago, Alexei Zhamnov was wrapping up his media scrum in the mixed zone at Salt Lake City’s E Centre. It was the day before the 2002 U.S.-Russia Olympic semi-final. A reporter quipped: “Come on, Archie – talk some trash for us!” The star centre laughed and shook his head as he walked away: “No, no. Great team! Great team!”

Zhamnov, who will stand behind the ROC team’s bench at age 51 during the 2022 Olympic gold medal game, is once again facing a great team in Finland. However, instead of the bronze medal he settled for in Salt Lake City, the relatively inexperienced head coach is aiming to come home with gold, just as he did as a CIS team member in 1992 at his first of three Olympics in Albertville.

But it probably won’t be guns a-blazin’.

This ROC team, although favoured pre-Beijing with its array of KHL talent, hasn’t exactly evoked Zhamnov’s own silky playmaking or that ‘92 CIS team with its Soviet-style goal difference of 46-14. There’s also no comparison offensively to Oleg Znarok’s 2018 OAR team that won gold in PyeongChang by outscoring opponents 27-9.

In a spooky coincidence, despite having a very different roster due to NHL non-participation this year, ROC has the same goal difference as the 2014 Russian team that fell 3-1 to Finland in the apocalyptic Sochi quarter-final: 13-8 through five games.

Even though Zhamnov can deploy KHL scoring champs and returning 2018 gold medalists like captain Vadim Shipachyov (1+2=3) and Nikita Gusev (0+5=5), there’s no reason to believe this Beijing gold medal game will look anything like the 1998 semi-final versus Finland in Nagano, where Pavel Bure ran wild with five goals in a 7-4 romp.

Here, ROC is coming off a 2-1 shootout win over Sweden, while the Finns blanked Slovakia 2-0. A neutral observer like Swedish head coach Johan Garpenlov is well-placed to project what lies ahead.

“It’s going to be another tight, defensive game,” said Garpenlov. “Two big, strong teams that take care of their own end first and have some skilled players offensively. [Finland] can score goals too. I don’t think there will be many goals in the game, but it’s going to be a good final.”

Unless ROC surprises Finland with a couple of quick, early goals and forces coach Jukka Jalonen’s team to open up, there won’t be much room to skate in the neutral zone. With that said, the experienced Finns, who enjoy an Olympic-leading 20-7 goal difference thus far, realize that against an opponent like this, they can’t just sit back all night long.

“Defence is our strength,” said forward Sakari Manninen, who ranks second in Olympic scoring (4+3=7) behind Slovakia’s Juraj Slafkovsky and got the winner in the semi-final. “We are ready with that. We know we can defend well. But also, we have to play with the puck more in the offensive zone, create penalties, get the opponents a little bit tired, and stuff like that.”

“We have to play a better game than we did [against Slovakia] to win the gold medal,” added Marko Anttila. The towering “Morko” knows whereof he speaks. When the Finns won the 2019 IIHF World Championship in Bratislava, their biggest playoff upset was the 1-0 semi-final win over the Russians, who brought an IIHF Hall of Fame-ready roster featuring Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeni Malkin, and Nikita Kucherov. It was Anttila who surprised goalie Andrei Vasilevski with the second-period winner.

Now on an even bigger stage, the Finns have a chance to succeed where their 2006 Olympic squad barely fell short with a 3-2 loss to Sweden in the Turin final.

“It would be huge,” said Finnish goalie Harri Sateri. “It’s the Olympics – one of the biggest tournaments you can win.”

Sateri, the starter for Sibir Novosibirsk, knows his KHL-trained opponents well. The former Florida Panther has stood tall with a tournament-best 96.5 save percentage and a sparkling 1.00 GAA.

Of course, “tall” is a relative term next to ROC starter Ivan Fedotov, who is just two centimetres shorter than 2018 OAR gold-medal goalie Vasili Koshechkin. Fedotov, whom Shipachyov dubs a “beauty,” has been no slouch himself in Beijing (94.4 save percentage, 1.53 GAA) in five consecutive starts. The CSKA Moskva veteran’s two shutouts lead the tournament.

If the Finns want to get to Fedotov, now would be an optimal time for their power play to ignite again. He’s allowed a tournament-high five PP goals, including four in the 6-5 overtime loss to Czechia.

Although Finland’s power play conversion rate (30.7 percent) easily outstrips ROC’s (12.5 percent), Jalonen’s crew haven’t scored with the man advantage since Iiro Pakarinen got the first of his two third-period goals in the 4-3 overtime win over Sweden in the Group C finale.

Still, on balance, Suomi’s chances of winning its first gold medal in Olympic history look promising. Arguably, they’ve got the edge.

No nation punches above its weight with defensive play and teamwork like Finland does. Right now, they have Manninen and his Salavat Yulayev Ufa partner Teemu Hartikainen (2+5=7) cuing the offence. Unlike in PyeongChang, the Russian squad lacks an obvious triggerman like Kirill Kaprizov or now-GM Ilya Kovalchuk, who tied for the 2018 tournament goals lead (five).

Even in terms of offence from the blue line, Finland’s Mikko Lehtonen (1+3=4) and Sami Vatanen (0+3=3) haven’t suffered in comparison to Nikita Nesterov (2+1=3) or Vyacheslav Voinov (1+1=2).

In fairness, morale is high on both sides. These rivals came to Beijing expecting rather than hoping to play for gold, and now the moment is at hand.

“I’m definitely happy,” said Finland’s Harri Pesonen. “What a great opportunity for us to play for the brightest medal! It’s pretty cool.”

“We’ve been building throughout the tournament,” said ROC’s Damir Sharipzyanov. “It was a slow start, not a lot of goals, but we are building, and I like where we are going.”

However, a coach’s job is to plan and worry. Zhamnov knows he’s got to make sure his team is physically and mentally ready to match what Jalonen’s men will bring. This final will likely be decided by a mistake or two.

Reflecting on the semi-final shootout win over Slovakia on youngster Arseni Gritsyuk’s winner, Zhamnov said: “We left all our nerves out on the ice. We gave everything to win. It means a lot to these players to be going to a second Olympic final in a row. Now our task is to get ready for Finland. Our biggest worry is fatigue, not emotion.”

Fortunately, there is no better shot of adrenaline than competing for an Olympic gold medal. And fans will be watching with bated breath, from Beijing to Moscow to Helsinki.

Source: iihf.com