After a busy day between the two semifinals yesterday, we’re right back at it this afternoon for the first of our two medal games. This one will all but certainly be a bit bittersweet, as the teams from Finland and Slovakia will have to shake off the disappointment from their losses yesterday, and really bear down in their efforts to go for the bronze medal, to avoid being the last team going home completely empty-handed. It’s the meaningful game to end all meaningful games, and we can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Puck drop: 2:40 p.m.
How to watch:
📺: Peacock
Pregame reading
- Before we get too deep into the Olympics again, a couple of prospect related things: first, the Phantoms had themselves a very good game last night, and Alex Bump had himself a very nice goal. [BSH]
- Porter Martone had a huge effort in last night’s matchup against Notre Dame. [BSH]
- And finally, our Olympic segue: let’s get into a bit of a retrospective, some of the best performances by Flyers in previous tournaments. [BSH]
The matchup
This game is, for a whole host of reason, sure to be an interesting one. The Finns are coming off of a hugely competitive performance against that very good Canadian team — they controlled play for good portions of that game, and were in control on the scoreboard for most of it, but the Canadians found a late equalizer, and a gutting even later game-winner (with just six seconds remaining in regulation) to punch their ticket to the gold medal game. On the flip side, the matchup between the Slovaks and the Americans was not so close — ending in a 6-2 score — but the Slovaks were able to find their footing increasingly as the game went on, and even though they were outmatched as far as firepower goes, there’s something to be said for them improving their play as they went, and having a bit of momentum, in a way, coming into this game.
And, one final and perhaps critical bit of context, this Finnish team still remains pretty loaded, but they’re going to have to do this one without Mikko Rantanen, who’s been struck down with an injury.
Team Finland
Artturi Lehkonen – Sebastian Aho – Oliver Kapanen
Mikael Granlund – Roope Hintz – Teuvo Teräväinen
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Kaapo Kakko
Eli Tolvanen – Erik Haula – Joel Armia
Esa Lindell – Miro Heiskanen
Niko Mikkola – Rasmus Ristolainen
Olli Määttä – Henri Jokiharju
Nikolas Matinpalo
Juuse Saros
(Kevin Lankinen)
Team Slovakia
Juraj Slafkovsky – Adam Ruzicka – Tomas Tatar
Milos Kelemen – Lukas Cingel – Pavol Regenda
Oliver Okuliar – Dalibor Dvorsky – Libor Hudacek
Adam Liska – Patrik Koch – Peter Celarik
Samuel Takac
Martin Fehervary – Simon Nemec
Martin Gernat – Erik Cernak
Martin Marincin – Peter Ceresnak
Matus Sukel
Samual Hlavaj
(Stanislav Skorvanek)
