If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Or in the case of Finland’s men’s ice hockey team, try 18 times.
Finland claimed their first ever men’s ice hockey gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team on Sunday.
Forward Hannes Bjorninen was the difference, scoring the game-winning goal just 31 seconds into the third period. He also assisted on defenseman Ville Pokka’s goal in the second period that tied the match 1-1.
The ROC team opened the scoring with a power-play goal from forward Mikhail Grigorenko just over seven minutes into the game.
“It’s hard to put in words what it means,” said Finland forward Valtteri Filppula, who was part of the Detroit Red Wings’ 2008 Stanley Cup team. “I felt like we played well the whole time, and this is the reward.”
“Hockey’s a big thing in Finland. This is for all of us, for sure.”
Fans took to the streets Sunday morning in Helsinki to celebrate the historic win, gathering at the Havis Amanda statue on Helsinki’s Market Square soon after the final horn sounded.
This was Finland’s 18th Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament. Their previous best showing was a silver medal in 1988 and 2006. They also won bronze four times, the most recent in Sochi 2014. Finland also appeared in the gold medal match of the 1980 Lake Placid Games, but lost to the United States 4-2 and did not medal.
Finland finished the Beijing tournament undefeated in six games.
The ROC team was seeking to repeat as gold medal winners after the Olympic athletes from Russia team beat Germany in PyeongChang four years ago, but could only muster 17 shots on goal for the final, and were outshout by Finland by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
Finland wasn’t the only country to end an Olympic medal drought, as Slovakia beat Sweden 4-0 in the bronze medal match to claim their first-ever Olympic medal in men’s hockey.
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