The Finns won the first hockey race in Russia
Invincible:
The Finns won all six games in the tournament, shut down Slovakia in the semifinals and crashed over Russia commercially.
A sheet of paper rained like a super-sized confetti bench yesterday, from which players jumped at full speed onto goalkeeper Harri Sater with such force that they dropped the net from its brackets.
When what so many Finnish teams could not do was finally completed, there was enough strength to get around. Finland, in Finnish Finland, is now synonymous with gold.
The Finns won the Beijing Men’s Men’s Hockey Tournament without NHL players with 2-1 goals from the Russians and grabbed Olympic gold for the first time in the country’s history.
Photo: AFP
– We got what we came here for, said Finnish defender Sami Vatanen. “We fought hard and got the first Olympic gold in the history of Finnish hockey. It’s something special, and no one can ever take it away from us. “
Finland had never won the Olympics on the men’s or women’s side. It last reached the finals in 2006 and lost to Sweden against 1988 silver.
The Russians defending the championship had to settle for silver instead of going against each other.
“Life doesn’t end there,” coach Alexei Zhamnov told Russian TV. “We still have a lot of races ahead of us.”
After winning gold in 2018 as an Olympic athlete from Russia, Russia competed this time as the Russian Olympic Committee. The names are the result of doping and the secrecy of several Olympic sports.
For Russian hockey players of any name, the silver in the men’s tournament was the 32nd medal earned by the country’s athletes in Beijing. Not just the gold they were expecting.
“Today we are the best country in the world in hockey,” said Finnish striker Harri Pesonen.
Although the Russians looked like new favorites when the NHL withdrew due to schedule disruptions related to COVID-19 at the end of December last year, the Finns were in fact big winners.
In the team of recent NHL players, such as captain Valtteri Filppula, striker Leo Komarov, and defenders Sami Vatanen and Mikko Lehtonen, Finland had the firepower to move forward with a strong structure, defense and the goals of the goalkeepers.
This combination helped Finland survive the Olympics unbeaten in six games, including the return of three goals to beat rival Sweden in the first round.
Finland defeated Switzerland, Slovakia and the Russians by taking the long-time coach Jukka Jalonen behind the bench effectively.
This game ended better for Finns than the previous final 16 years ago, when national stars Teemu Selanne, Kimmo Timonen, Mikko and Saku Koivu and Jere Lehtinen almost finished their work.
This time the Finnish Olympic heroes included Sateri, goal scorer Sakari Makinen, defender Ville Pokka, Deputy Captain Marko Anttila and winger Hannes Bjorninen.
Pokka equalized when Mikhail Grigorenko put the Russians on the board, Bjorninen directed Anttila’s shot to the winning goal and Sateri blocked 16 times.
The Russians scored just three shots on the net in the third round.
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