The Chicago Blackhawks won’t have any players coming out of Milan with a Gold Medal, as Teuvo Teravainen, the club’s lone Olympic participant, and Finland lost 3-2 to Canada in the Semifinals on Friday. Teravainen and Finland do still have a chance to come away with some hardware though, as they face Slovakia on Saturday in the Bronze Medal Game.
After losing their opening game of the tournament on Feb. 11, Finland rebounded and finished the preliminary round with back-to-back wins, defeating their rival Sweden 4-1 and blowing out Italy, the host country, 11-0. The Finns snowballed that momentum into an epic come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win against Switzerland in the Quarterfinals on Wednesday, punching their ticket into the Semifinals.
Facing off against a Sidney Crosby-less Canadian squad on Friday, Finland raced out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of special-teams tallies. Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring on the power play in the first period, and then Erik Haula netted a short-handed goal to double the advantage early in the second.
But instead of looking to extend their lead after that point, Finland made a massive mistake by playing too passively and trying to win a low-scoring affair. Against a juggernaut Canadian roster filled with talent from top to bottom, they should have known that two goals weren’t going to be enough to win the game.
Canada started playing with some urgency after falling behind by two, and Sam Reinhart finally got them on the board on the power play, cutting the deficit in half. Reinhart deflected Cale Makar’s shot from the point for his first goal of the tournament.
Just after the midway point of the second period, Shea Theodore scored the game’s first even-strength goal on a wrist shot from the point. Suddenly, Finland’s lead was gone, and the score was tied 2-2 with plenty of time left on the clock.
Finnish goaltender Juuse Saros gave a tremendous effort in the third period as Canada continued to surge, but a costly penalty in the final minutes of regulation proved too much to handle. Canada’s star-studded power play hit the ice and converted for the game-winning goal, as Nathan MacKinnon blistered a one-timer from the left circle that just barely squeaked past Saros’ right pad and into the net. With just 36 seconds remaining, Finland trailed for the first time.
After an unsuccessful challenge for offsides, Finland was unable to tie the game with the extra attacker on the ice and lost in heartbreaking fashion, giving up three unanswered goals as a chance to play for a Gold Medal slipped out of their grasp.
Finland has one final game to play before departing Milan on Saturday, and Teravainen will then head back to Chicago and rejoin the Blackhawks for practice before they return to action on Feb. 26 against the Nashville Predators.
Head coach Jeff Blashill said after Friday’s practice that the plan is for Teravainen to rejoin the team next Wednesday, Feb. 25. He’s expected to be part of the Blackhawks’ lineup for their first game back the following night.
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