The Olympic men’s hockey semi-finals began on Friday morning and the first course was a heavyweight clash between Canada and Finland.
Both the Canadians and Finns got this far thanks to overtime thrillers in the semifinals, but for Team Canada, the victory came at a cost. Captain Sidney Crosby was injured after a hit by Czech Radko Gudas and left the game early.
Shortly before puck drop on Friday, it was announced that he would be out of the lineup against Finland.
This was the last bit of news Canada needed against a very good Finnish team that plays much more physically than Finnish teams at previous Olymipcs.
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The Finns opened the scoring late in a fast and physical first quarter with Mikko Rantanen lighting the lamp just seconds after Canadian Sam Bennett scored through goalie interference.
Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros had a strong performance several times, as the Canadians got much more rubber on the net than the Finns.
Special teams continued to be a big story in the second as we got our first taste of the Canadian power play without Crosby after Sebastian Aho was called for interference, but things quickly went off the rails.
Finland surprised Canada by clearing the puck from their zone and launching to Nashville’s Erik Haula for a short breakaway, which he buried to take a 2-0 lead.
About ten minutes later, Finland’s Anton Lundell took a high penalty and… would you believe it? — special teams were the story once again, only this time it was in Canada’s favor.
Lundell’s Florida Panthers teammate Sam Reinhart deflected a Cale Makar shot from the point to get rid of that goose egg for the Canadiens.
Canada continued to apply the pressure and with just under ten minutes left in regulation they were outscoring the Finns 29-14.
That pressure resulted in a Shea Theodore missile from the top of the circle that found the back of the net.
The Finns were not happy with the contact Brad Marchand made with Saros, but if you look at this again, the contact was clearly initiated by Finn Erik Haula in the box.
Canada never took its foot off the gas after that, and that pressure certainly played a role in Finland’s Niko Mikkola giving away a penalty for Nathan MacKinnon’s high stick with about two and a half minutes left in regulation.
And once again, the special teams produced, with Nathan MacKinnon scoring the game-winner with just 35.2 seconds left in regulation.
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The Finns disputed the goal, saying that the Canadians had entered the offside zone, and boy, was it close; It’s worth a try, but the call stood and Team Canada was up 3-2.
That’s how things ended, with the Canadians pulling off a 3-0 comeback to solidify their spot in the gold medal game on Sunday, where they’ll face the winner of Friday afternoon’s other semifinal game between Team USA and Slovakia.
As for the Finns, they still have some business to attend to as they will face the loser of that match in the bronze medal match on Saturday.
