Finland rallies past Slovakia for hockey bronze

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada — 

Finland rallied from a two-goal third-period deficit to beat Slovakia 5-3 at Canada Hockey Place to win the bronze and deny Slovakia its first Olympic medal in any team sport. The fourth-place finish is Slovakia’s best Olympic result.

“It’s just a tough pill to swallow,” Marian Hossa said, “because I thought we had an unbelievable tournament, and we should be proud of ourselves, but the result is not what we wanted.”

Olli Jokinen scored two goals for Finland, while Slovakia fell despite a goal and assist from Hossa.

The Finns took the lead late in the first period on Sami Salo’s power-play goal. The defenseman blasted a shot from the top of the right circle that sailed over goaltender Jaroslav Halak’s glove and into the net.

Slovakia, which rallied with two third-period goals against Canada on Friday but couldn’t find the equalizer in a frenzied final minute, looked like a fatigued team in the first. It mustered only five shots against Finnish goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

“I don’t know what happened in the first; I think we were watching too much,” Hossa said.

Slovakia seemed to find its bearings midway through the second and tied it 1-1 when Marian Gaborik tallied a power-play goal after working his way into open ice. He took a pass from Pavol Demitra and scored from the slot.

Later in the second, Hossa scored when he stopped a loose puck with his skate and tapped it into the net from the right post.

ckuc@tribune.com