Finland Defeats ROC to Win Men's Olympic Hockey Gold

Finland has won its first Olympic gold in men's hockey after beating the Russian Olympic Committee 2-1 in the gold medal game on Sunday.

Finland has won its first Olympic gold in men's hockey after beating the Russian Olympic Committee 2-1 in the gold medal game on Sunday.

It was a historic win for Finland, who has now won medals in seven of the past 10 tournaments to prove they're one of the best teams on the international circuit. Finland won silver in 2006 and bronze in 2010 and 2014, the last three tournaments with NHLers.

In other recent men's international events, Finland won gold at the 2019 World Championship over Canada before losing the rematch in 2021. 

Finland's women's team took bronze earlier in the week in Beijing.

The Russians will have to settle for silver after winning gold as the Olympic Athletes From Russia back in 2018. 

The Russians didn't shoot a lot early, but they were definitely efficient. At 7:17, Mikhail Grigorenko found a small opening below Harri Sateri's blocker on the man advantage to break the ice, forcing Finland to chase early on.

The Finns, though, looked strong, outshooting Russia 15-6. At 23:28, it all paid off when Ville Pokka's seeing-eye shot beat Ivan Fedotov's glove side through traffic to tie it up at one.

Russia needed a big start to the third period to answer back, but the complete opposite happened.  Just 31 seconds into the line, Marko Antilla's shot looked rather harmless until Hannes Bjorninen re-directed the shot past Fedotov for the go-ahead goal. That ended up being the golden goal, an unbelievable moment for Finnish men's hockey.