Sweden suffered its first loss of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday against its biggest rival. Finland and Sweden are in the same group for the tournament, and it was Finland who came away with a 4-1 win. It's one of the top rivalries in international hockey and lived up to the billing. Outside of the goals, there were plenty of big hits and post-whistle skirmishes during the game. Finland raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Nikolas Matinpalo and Anton Lundell. Rasmus Dahlin got Sweden back into it in the second period, cutting the deficit in half, before Joel Armia restored Finland's two-goal lead with a shorthanded goal. Mikko Rantanen finished Sweden off with an empty-net goal in the third period. Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins]defenseman Erik Karlsson was once again paired with Philip Broberg and didn't play nearly as well as he did against Italy on Wednesday. He was lackluster with some of his passes and was overthinking things too often. His decision-making needed to be a lot better. Penguins forward Rickard Rakell was on the third line with Elias Pettersson and Mika Zibanejad and had a couple of really good chances in the third period, including one in the first two minutes of the final frame. Rakell had a great chance from the net-front to make it a 3-2 game, but was denied by Finland goaltender Juuse Saros. Both Karlsson and Rakell will try to get back on the scoresheet for Sweden's final preliminary game against Slovakia on Saturday. Slovakia currently leads Group B with a 2-0-0 record. Puck drop for Saturday's game is scheduled for 6:10 a.m. ET. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwquDfCA?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!
