Olympics men’s hockey: Finland holds off South Korea

Finland moves on to the semifinals with a 5-2 victory over South Korea in the Olympics men’s hockey tournament.

South Korea gave Finland a scare, but it wasn’t quite enough as Finland defeated the host country 5-2 to move on in the Olympics men’s hockey tournament.

Finland opened the scoring 4:42 into the game on a power play goal by Petri Kontiola. The play was made by tournament leading scorer Eeli Tolvanen, who whipped a backhand pass across the ice to a cocked and loaded Kontiola. Kontiola fired it past goalie Matt Dalton to put Finland up 1-0.

Kontiola would make it 2-0 with another power play goal 3:44 into the second. This one wasn’t quite as pretty as his centering pass hit off the skate of a South Korea defender and went into the net.

Miro Heiskanen pushed the lead to three, whacking home a scramble in front of the net less than three minutes later.

South Korea punched back, starting with a goal by Brock Radunske. Finland goalie Mikko Koskinen made the initial stop on Eric Regan, but Radunske put home the rebound to ignite the home crowd. Two minutes later, Jin Hui Ahn snapped a shot past the glove of Koskinen to make it 3-2.

South Korea opened the third period on the power play, but Finland came out of the locker room determined to shutdown any hope of a comeback. And they succeed, allowing just two shots in the period.

Juuso Hietanen would add another power play goal, which finished 3-4 in the game, and Sakari Manninen put in an empty net goal to push Finland into the semifinals.

Dalton made 32 saves for South Korea.

Highlights

What’s Next?

Finland takes on Canada in a highly anticipated quarterfinal showdown. That game begins at 7:10 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning.

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