Women's ice hockey giant Finland won the Olympic bronze medal at Beijing 2022 after defeating Switzerland 4-0 on Wednesday.
Goals from Susanna Tapani, Nelli Laitinen and Michelle Karvinen in the third period, together with Viivi Vainikka's opener in the first, give Finland their fourth Olympic bronze medal in the women's ice hockey.
"It feels really good, amazing," said Finland captain Jenni Hiirikoski, who got her third Olympic bronze medal in Beijing. "Obviously, today Switzerland also played really well, and they made it really tough for us."
"We have some amazing athletes on this team," said Finland head coach Jusso Toivola. "4-0 is a great result."
Finland showed great efficiency on power play in previous matches, and so did they in Wednesday's bronze medal match. The Finns had four power play chances during the match, and made two goals out of them.
Finland outshot the Swiss 13-5 in the first period. Vainikka hit the puck into the net on 11 minutes 38 seconds to award the Nordic side 1-0 lead.
Both teams fought hard but the second period turned out to be goalless. Finland kept playing aggressively on the offensive side, leading 34-9 on shooting attempts in the first two periods.
At the beginning of the final period, Tapani made full use of a turnover, beating Swiss defense through a fast-break attack to extend the advantage to 2-0. It was the sixth goal for the 28-year-old veteran at the 2022 Olympics.
Switzerland had to put more attention on the offensive side, only to see Laitinen and Karvinen score to seal the victory.
Switzerland beat Finland 3-2 last week in Group A match. However, Finland emerged as the better team on Wednesday.
The gold-medal game between the USA and Canada will be contested on Thursday. -
