Goaltender Juuse Saros stood tall, stopping 30 of 31 shots in the victory to complete an excellent Olympics in which he finished with a .940 save percentage, including one shutout. Armia (one goal, two assists), Miro Heiskanen (two assists) and Eeli Tolvanen (two assists) were among the team’s top contributors on Saturday.
After losing 4-1 to Slovakia in both teams’ opening round-robin game, Finland’s win clinches its fourth-straight medal in an Olympics featuring NHL players (2006, 2010, 2014). This is Finland’s eighth Olympic men’s hockey medal and fifth bronze, as they denied Slovakia from winning bronze for the second straight Olympics. Their bronze in 2022 was their first men’s hockey Olympic medal.
Mikael Granlund and Olli Maatta were both part of Finland’s bronze-winning 2014 team and both earned their second Olympic medals with the victory. The Finns won despite arguably their best player, Mikko Rantanen, missing the game to injury, but he was healthy enough to join his team on the ice for the postgame medal ceremony.