Finland Men's National Hockey Team – Page 2

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

Over the course of the IIHF’s long and glorious history there is no greater story of slow and consistent and remarkable development than Finland. And now, Suomi is one game away – maybe one goal away – from doing something it has never done – win Olympic gold. The path from there to here, from 10 February 1928, when the nation was welcomed into the IIHF family during the Olympics in St. Moritz, has been a long one, but this proud and hockey-loving culture has been waiting and hoping for this moment for a long time.

It wasn’t until 1939 that Finland played its first IIHF event, the World Championship in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland. The Finns lost all five games and placed in a tie for 13th, and last, spot, with Yugoslavia. Their first ever game came on 3 February 1939, when they were swamped by Germany, 12-1. That lone Finnish goal was scored by Holger Granstrom, who is forever the answer to the trivia question, who scored Finland’s first ever goal in IIHF competition.

The war interrupted the IIHF schedule for several years, and Finland didn’t play again until 1949 when it had a 3-0-2 record and finished 7th. Suomi played at the 1951 Worlds and finished 7th again, and this was the lead-in to the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, the first time the Finns participated in the five-ringed event. Risto Lindroos was the coach and Aarne Honkavaara the captain. Honkavaara was a star of this era. He played in all three events right after the war and was a fine goal scorer. Finland won only two of six games, though, and finished 7th, and starting in 1954 they played at the World Championship and have been doing so ever since in the top pool.

But here’s the incredible part. The years and decades passed. The Finns kept competing, but they never came particularly close to any sort of medal until the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. By this time, several Finns had started to play in the NHL. The first were Pekka Rautakallio and Risto Siltanen, who both made their NHL debuts on October 10, 1979. A year later, the great Jari Kurri started, changing the reputation of Finns in North America forever.

In Calgary, Finland won three and tied one in the preliminary round, and in the medal round they completed their incredible run by defeating the gold-medal-winning Soviets, 2-1, on the final day. Finland won silver, its first medal ever in senior IIHF competition, exactly 60 years after joining international hockey.

This success had its roots in excellent performances at the World Junior Championship during that tournament’s first days. The U20 was first established by the IIHF in 1977, and in 1980, the Finns earned medals three years running – silver, silver, bronze. In 1987, they won their first gold at the U20, but between then and 2013 they won gold only once more (1998).

More success followed more quickly after Calgary. They won their first World Championship medal in 1992, a silver, and followed that with another silver two years later. In 1994, they won a bronze at the Lillehammer Olympics. A year later came an historic gold, the team famously captained by Timo Jutila that included the most famous forward line in Finnish history – right winger Jere Lehtinen, centre Saku Koivu, and left winger Ville Peltonen. They were all young and were nicknamed “Tupu, Hupu, Lupu” after Donald Duck’s nephews.

But that gold in 1995 didn’t signal the start of a new wave of success. Although they won four medals in a row (1998-2001), they didn’t win gold again until 2011. In between, they had one of their greatest moments in 2004 in Toronto during the World Cup, advancing to the championship game before losing to the hosts. And in 2006, in Turin, they came agonizingly close to Olympic gold. Tied 1-1 to start the third period, Saku Koivu broke his stick at the faceoff, and while he was getting new lumber Swedish defender Nicklas Lidstrom was slapping the gold-medal-winning goal into the net.

But at the junior level, there were signs of future greatness. The new U18 event was a boon for the Finns who won gold at the inaugural tournament in 1999 and again a year later.

There have been some great results and disappointments along the way, of course, but in the last decade it can be argued Finland has been just about the most consistent winning team in the world. At the World Championships it has won five medals in the last ten events. Since 1998, when the NHL started at the Olympics, no country has won more medals than the Finns (five, including this year). At the World Juniors, they have taken four medals in the last eight events, and in the U18, between 2009 and 2018, they won seven medals, including two more gold in 2016 and 2018.

And right now, the Finns are in a place they have never been before. For the first time, they have advanced to the gold medal game at three consecutive events in men’s ice hockey – 2019 Worlds (win against Canada), 2021 Worlds (loss to Canada), and now the Olympic final against ROC. This is the most dominant Finnish team ever. Led by coach Jukka Jalonen and big captain Marko Anttila, the Finns have been the favourites all tournament long.

The rise of Finland has taken decades, but here they are. They have won gold at the U18 and the U20 and the World Championship, but the one thing they don’t have is Olympic gold. It has been 94 years, but maybe on Sunday they will check this all-important box off their to-do list. It would be well-earned and come from a most remarkable patience.

Source: iihf.com