Team Finland's men's team won the Bronze Medal in Milano Cortina. Teuvo Teravainen is coming back to Chicago with some good hardware.
The 2026 Olympic Winter Games are wrapping up in Milano Cortina. Heading into the weekend, four teams had a chance to leave Italy with a medal. All 32 National Hockey League teams are represented at least once on one of the four teams.
For the Chicago Blackhawks, that’s Teuvo Teravainen of Team Finland. Finland was defeated heartbreakingly by Canada after it had a 2-0 lead in the hockey game. That forced them into the Bronze Medal Game.
Slovakia was handled by Team USA in the semifinal, so they were sent into the Bronze Medal Game for a date with Finland. This is a rematch of the first game of the entire men’s tournament in Milano Cortina.
The Finns began the game with a significant disadvantage, as Mikko Rantanen was ruled out right before it began due to a lower-body injury. With Aleksander Barkov out since the beginning of NHL training camp, Finland played the Bronze Medal Game without their two best forwards.
This did not affect them too badly against Slovakia in their final match of the Olympics. Finland took care of Slovakia with ease, beating them 6-1 to claim the Bronze Medal.
This ended a great run for Slovakia. Nobody expected them to have the tournament that they did. Coming in 4th is never fun, but they will eventually look back on it as a major success. They are officially back as a hockey country.
As for Finland, they lost that first game to open the tournament handily. It looked like, at that point, that it was going to be a down year for them. Instead, they rallied all the way back. Every team strives for Gold, as Finland won back in 2022, but returning home with Bronze is something to be proud of.
Teravainen will now return to the Blackhawks with more hardware than he left with. He will add a Bronze Medal to his Stanley Cup, which is a great baseline of hockey accomplishments for a player.
The expectation is that he will return to practice in Chicago on Wednesday. The plan is for him to play against the Nashville Predators in Nashville on Thursday.
The Chicago Blackhawks only had one Olympian in 2026, which is a lot different than the group they sent in 2014, but the future is bright for a lot of the players in their organization when it comes to future participation.
Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay up to date on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.