From Olympic bronze to World Championship gold, Nikolas Matinpalo's trophy case is starting to fill up.
For Senators defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo, it's been a memorable few months on the international hockey stage. Back in February at the Olympics in Milan, Matinpalo earned a bronze medal as Team Finland pounded Slovakia 6-1 in the third-place game.
On Sunday in Switzerland, he bumped it up a couple of notches.
At the World Hockey Championships, Matinpalo and Team Finland took home gold after a 1-0 overtime win, raining on the Swiss parade. Buffalo Sabres rookie Konsta Helenius scored the OT winner 10:42 into overtime, giving Team Finland its second title since 2022 and fifth all-time.
While the World Hockey Championships are a big step down from the best-on-best level of the Winter Olympics, nothing beats gold.
That's what Canada came for, but they lost to the Finns in Saturday's semifinal, which was sweet revenge after the way Finland lost the Olympic semifinals in February.
In a 2-2 semifinal game with 2:35 left in regulation, defenseman Niko Mikkola was rung up for high-sticking Canada's Nathan MacKinnon in the face. Finland argued that not only did MacKinnon embellish on the play, but he's the one who lifted Mikkola's stick into his own face.
The Finns turned the tables on Saturday, then Canada lost 3-2 to Norway in Sunday's bronze medal game, so they'll come home empty-handed. Dylan Cozens had 7 points in the tournament but was bumped off the top line on Sunday in favour of Porter Martone.
Matinpalo played all six playoff games for the Senators last spring, and all four this spring, but his role has pretty much been taken by Jordan Spence on a full-time basis. Spence started this season as the seventh man, but Travis Green eventually started plugging him into the lineup every night.
Matinpalo played in 28 of the club's first 38 games and finished the year with just 50 games played. With all the injuries, his depth was welcome, but it will be interesting to see how Matinpalo fits in next season when everyone is healthy, especially with Carter Yakemchuk competing for a spot.
But that's for another day. For Matinpalo and the Finns, today is all about gold and champagne.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News