Chicago Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen and Team Finland are off to the semi-final in Milano Cortina.
The Chicago Blackhawks were back at practice on Wednesday with a full group of healthy players. The exception to that is Teuvo Teravainen, who remains in Milano Cortina with Team Finland.
Finland, after overcoming a 2-0 deficit to Team Switzerland, will play in the semi-final of the men's tournament on Friday. Their opponent is mighty Canada, which also had a scare on Friday, winning in overtime over Czechia.
Down 2-0 early in the game, Finland had a hard time breaking through on the Swiss defense. It looked like they were going to be upset one round before the final four, but they eventually prevailed with a 3-2 win in overtime.
The Swiss have a fair amount of high-end NHL talent. However, they are not quite as deep as Finland, which is what allowed the Finns to tie it in the end. Their talent matched their effort, and the Swiss were overwhelmed late. In 3-on-3 overtime, anything can happen, but the resolve of the Finnish was on full display again.
This isn't the first time that Team Finland faced adversity in this tournament. In their first game, they were beaten pretty badly by Team Slovakia. Since they've bounced back and made it all the way to the final four.
They faced Sweden with the worry of going down 0-2 in the tournament, but they beat their arch-rival and got right back on their feet. Now, a match against Canada looms.
The other game in the semi-finals is a battle between that pesky Slovakian team and the United States. Slovakia had a pretty convincing win over Germany early on Wednesday, while Team USA advanced on a Quinn Hughes overtime winner against Sweden.
The semifinals can be seen on Peacock on Friday. At 9:30 AM CT, Teravainen and Finland will face Canada. Later in the day, at 2 PM, Team USA will battle Slovakia. The winners will meet for a chance at the Gold Medal.
Teravainen was close to being on the next flight back to Chicago. However, now he will be in Milan through Sunday, no matter what. Whether he's playing for a Gold or Bronze will be figured out on Friday. The hard-working Finns believe that they can beat anybody with their system.
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