Matinpalo secures Olympic bronze with Finland after their 5-1 victory over Slovakia.
As they leave Milan this weekend, the Ottawa Senators will have three players declaring precious medals at customs.
Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson will be presented with either gold or silver medals on Sunday, depending on what happens in the Olympic hockey final between Team USA and Team Canada.
Senators defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo will also leave with a medal after Team Finland pounded Slovakia 6-1 in the bronze medal game. The victory was some sweet revenge for the Finns after losing to Slovakia 4-1 in the opening game of the tournament.
Based on the poundings the Slovaks absorbed in the past two games, which include a 6-2 semifinal loss to the USA on Friday, it's hard to believe they actually won their group.
Finland, on the other hand, was probably still seething about the way they lost to Canada in the semifinals. 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.
MacKinnon scored the game-winner with just one second left in the ensuing power play to send Canada to the gold medal game. Finland, in a foul mood, took it out on Slovakia on Saturday.
As has been the case in Ottawa for much of this season, Matinpalo was used in a depth role in Italy, not getting much in the way of ice time. For perspective, Miro Heiskanen played more minutes (25:32) in the bronze medal game than Matinpalo did in the entire tournament.
That's not to diminish the achievement. Mentioning his limited usage was to illustrate a similar odd-man-out trend in Ottawa and how Milan didn't provide a lot of respite from that.
But at least he suited up for five of the six games.
4-1 L vs Slovakia: Didn't play
4-1 W vs Sweden: 5:57
11-0 W vs Italy: 8:09
3-2 OTW vs Switzerland: 4:24
3-2 L vs Canada: 1:39
5-1 W vs Slovakia 2:51
Matinpalo played all six playoff games for the Senators last spring, but his role has pretty much been taken by Jordan Spence on a full-time basis. Spence started the season as the seventh man, but Travis Green now plugs him into the lineup every night.
Matinpalo played in 28 of the club's first 38 games. But in the 19 games since, he's only played twice. When the Senators honoured their Olympians at a game earlier this month, Matinpalo was standing beside the bench wearing a suit.
Some observers believe that if he gets back into the lineup, it may come at Nick Jensen's expense, not Spence's. But time will tell.
In the meantime, no matter what, Matinpalo will be able to forever tell his grandkids he represented Finland with pride at the 2026 Olympics, scored a goal on a beautiful shot, and won a bronze medal for his country.
That's pretty damn special.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News