At this year's Olympics, Team Finland shook off a tough semifinal loss to Canada on Friday, overwhelming Slovakia 6-1 on Saturday to win the Olympic bronze medal.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics, we’ve seen two different types of Finnish hockey teams. One Finnish team has been one of the best defensive groups in the Olympics, while the same team started the Games on a sub-par note and crumbled against Canada in the semifinals on Friday.
But on Saturday, in the bronze medal game against Team Slovakia, Finland overwhelmed the Slovaks in a 6-1 victory to lock up their seventh medal since the 1994 Olympics.
Saturday’s game was a one-goal game until the 8:27 mark of the third period, when Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz broke the game open with the Finns’ third goal of the night. Finland received its first two goals on Saturday from Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho and Nashville Predators winger Erik Haula – the latter of whom scored an empty-net goal for Finland’s final goal.
Elsewhere, Seattle Kraken winger Kaapo Kakko and Los Angeles Kings forward Joel Armia netted all the third-period insurance markers Finland would need after Hintz scored.
Meanwhile, Preds goalie Juuse Saros turned aside 30 of 31 Slovakia shots to snuff out any hopes the Slovaks had of coming back to tie or win the contest, delivering the Finns to third place on the Olympic podium.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that defense wins you games at hockey’s highest levels, and that was true for Finland after they stumbled out of the gate and lost their first round-robin game to Slovakia in a 4-1 decision. In their remaining five games in the Olympic tournament, the Finns outscored their opponents by a whopping combined total of 26-6.
The only real blemish Finland had was its collapse against Canada on Friday, falling 3-2 in their semifinal showdown. Otherwise, the Finns competed about as well as any team could’ve hoped for.
Finland took home their fourth Olympic bronze medal in which NHL players participated. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)The Slovaks, on the other hand, took a step backward after winning bronze at the 2022 Olympics. But Team Slovakia did beat the Italians and Germans this year following their opening-game win over the Finns.
Additionally, Montreal Canadiens star winger Juraj Slafkovsky had a terrific Olympic tournament in his second appearance, posting four goals and eight points in seven games. So there absolutely were bright spots for Slovakia.
Unfortunately, the Slovaks were pounded by Sweden and the United States, showing how far their international program has to go before they can be a dark-horse team capable of doing serious damage. They simply do not have the depth of NHL-level talent that other teams have, and until that changes, Slovakia is likely to be on the outside of the medal picture looking in.
But back to the Finns: they always play as greater than the sum of their parts, and this Olympics was no different. Finland outplayed their Swedish arch-rivals, and most of Finland’s roster will be returning for the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.
The Finns shook off the disappointment of losing to Canada on Friday to claim third place one day later in an extremely tough Olympic tournament. And in the big picture, Finnish fans have to be proud of the performance their players put in.
Finland ultimately wasn’t the best of the best in this best-on-best tourney. But they were better than all but two teams, and that’s no small achievement.
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