The Finnish team won the bronze medals in the Olympic men's ice hockey tournament, BTA reported.
In the small final in Milan, the Scandinavians defeated Slovakia 6:1 (1:0, 1:1, 4:0) and thus took revenge for their 1:4 defeat by the same opponent in the group stage.
The match began with a goal for the Finnish team in the eighth minute. It was scored by Sebastian Aho. The Carolina Hurricanes forward proved to be the most resourceful in a shuffle in front of Samuel Hlavay's goal and sent the puck into the net from a few centimeters for 1:0.
This turned out to be the only goal in the first period, but shortly after the start of the second, Finland doubled its lead. This time, Erik Haula was accurate, who also scored in yesterday's semi-final with Canada.
Slovakia found the strength to respond in the last minute of the second period. 30 seconds before its final, Tomas Tatar was accurate to reduce the score to 1:2, after the puck ended up in his possession after an unnatural ricochet in the goalpost, which deceived Finnish goalie Juse Saros.
However, the intrigue created by the Slovaks' goal evaporated very quickly. Within half a minute of the third period, Finland scored two goals through Roope Hinz and Kapo Kako, which increased the score to 4:1 in favor of the Olympic champions from Beijing 2022.
The point of contention was put by Yoel Armia and again by Erik Haula with empty-net goals in the closing minutes of the match.
The grand final of the tournament, in which the star-studded teams of the National Hockey League of the USA and Canada are rivals, is on Sunday in Milan. It will start at 15:10 Bulgarian time. Canada is looking for its tenth Olympic title in men's hockey, while the current world champions from the USA will try to win the gold medals for the third time in history.