With Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen unavailable, most thought Team Finland would struggle during Olympic play, but Antero Niittymaki played spectacularly and has the Finns in the gold medal game on Sunday.

Perfect Finns finish off Russians
By Phil Coffey | NHL.com
Feb. 24, 2006

TORINO, Italy -- The wild and wonderful ride just keeps going and going for Team Finland.

Underdogs entering the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Finns have proven to be the class of the field thus far, improving to 7-0 in the tournament, while having allowed only five goals throughout, by advancing to the gold medal game against Sweden with a 4-0 shutout of a strong Russian team Friday.

The Finns continued to play a perfect game, especially against the dangerous Russians, whose tremendous speed and skill was negated by airtight defense, strong goaltending and a relentless forecheck that broke up rush after rush. And not to be overlooked, the Finns continued to use their timely offense to good effect.

It has made for a picture-perfect Olympics for the Finns, who were discounted in many corners when a slew of its NHL players, including goalies Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen, were lost to injury. But instead of crying "woe is us", the Finns just bought into the team system and started lapping the field.

"As I told people before the tournament, the team that plays as a team was going to win," Nashville Predators defenseman Kimmo Timonen said. "Yeah, we miss those guys (the injured players), but what can you do? We got together as a team and decided as a group; Don't worry about that, we have to go out and play as a team. Everybody knew we were going to be underdogs coming in. But we knew as a group we can beat anyone and we showed it the last couple of games."

"We came here as underdogs," Dallas Stars winger Jere Lehtinen said. "But we did good teamwork, playing all four lines, playing hard and skating hard. That's why we got here.

"It is a team concept based on defense," winger Ville Peltonen said. "Everybody buys into it."

Truer words were never spoken.

The Russians were a huge challenge for the Finns. After dropping their first game of the preliminary round, the Russians had run the table and their strong speed game was daunting indeed.

The Finns got rolling right away, scoring the all-important first goal of the game when former NHLer Ville Peltonen continued his terrific play in the Olympics, deflecting a Timonen pass at 6:13 of the first with the Finns on the power play.

But the first period was pretty evenly played overall.

Teemu Selanne's play in the Olympic Games has been reminiscent of his early days in the NHL.

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Toni Lydman made it 2-0 at 9:33 of the second period, taking a pass from the lower rim of the left circle and then whipping the shot past San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, beating him high to the glove side.

For the Finns, a two-goal lead has been virtually insurmountable in these Olympics, and when Koivu, Montreal's driven captain, made it a three-goal edge at 13:51, the Russians knew they were up against it.

The Finns showed clever awareness of their surroundings on Koivu's goal, taking advantage of the lively boards. Timonen's shot from the blue line was wide of the net, but caromed off the backboards to Koivu, who was to Nabokov's right, where he redirected the puck into the net for the 3-0 lead.

"We created too many turnovers," New York Islanders captain Alexei Yashin said. "They didn't give us any opportunities to create scoring chances."

That was a product of design according to Koivu.

"I didn't think we were making any big mistakes," Koivu said. "We were getting the puck in deep and keeping the third man high."

Florida Panthers captain Olli Jokinen continued his strong play in this tournament, putting the coup de grace on the victory with an easy tap-in off a Peltonen pass at 9:17 of the third.

At this point, the Russians realized the chances of getting four goals against a team playing as well as Finland was a near impossibility.

"We got what we deserved," Nabokov said. "I think the score pretty much sums it up. We did not play well and we did not deserve to win. They were hungrier than we were and I don't know why."

Perhaps because winning Olympic gold, especially in a dream matchup against Sweden, would be the ultimate achievement for the Finns.

"It is a dream final for us," Buffalo Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen said. "Sweden is the best opponent for obvious reasons. It will be a great game."

The Finns are assured of at least a silver medal now, and for Numminen, who won bronze in 1988 in Calgary, this will be the one he remembers.

"I was 20 then," he recalled, "and didn't appreciate it as much."

The Finns also have received tremendous goaltending from Philadelphia Flyer Antero Niittymaki, who has four of the five shutouts the Finns have posted so far in seven games, an incredible achievement.

"We played really good," Niittymaki said. "We had good defending and good backchecking. I was not nervous at the beginning of the tournament. I didn't know what to expect, but my players have been so supportive of me."

It's been more of a mutual admiration society for the Finns, who once again are proving the point that team play wins hockey games, whether it's in the NHL or the international arena. Remember, most of the current Finnish players played in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and that team went 4-1-1 in reaching the finals against Canada, so international success is becoming a habit.

"It would be great to give something back to Finnish hockey and to us," said Anaheim's Teemu Selanne, who appears to have turned the clock back 10 years. "I think we're playing really disciplined. We have guys who score goals and guys who do other stuff."

And the result so far has been Olympic perfection, but the Finns know the biggest obstacle for the gold ? Sweden on Sunday ? remains.

"We know we can be better," Selanne said. "There is great chemistry in this team and it's such a great feeling. It's an awesome feeling. We've played so well in this tournament. Every player has played his part. That's the bottom line. It's great to be in the final, but we all know we have one game to go."