Men's ice hockey semi-final Round Up: ROC hold off Sweden, Finland defeat Slovakia

After a pair of thrilling semi-final match ups on Friday (18 February), it will be defending champions ROC against Finland in Sunday's gold medal men's ice hockey game at Beijing 2022.

"We'll try but it won't be easy. We know this," said ROC head coach Alexei Zhamnov to Olympics.com after his team survived a marathon game against Sweden that went to eight rounds in the penalty-shot shootout. "Finland are a very good team and we want to make sure we're ready."

Slovakia and Sweden will face off in Saturday's bronze medal match. A win would give Slovakia their first-ever medal in the event at the Olympics, while Sweden last reached the podium at Sochi 2014, taking silver.

Finland 2, Slovakia 0

In Friday's first semi-final game, Finland downed Slovakia in a shut out, 2-0.

Sakari Manninen found the net first, at the 15:58 mark, then, Harri Pesonen added an empty-netter late in the third period (59:21).

"It's a pretty special day. I knew coming into the Olympics that we'd have a good, solid team, a veteran team with a lot of experienced guys, but every tournament is a mystery how it goes and how it ends,” said Pesonen.

"I'm definitely happy. What a great opportunity for us to play for the brightest medal. It's pretty cool."

Slovakia will have to regroup in what has been something of a Cinderella story to this point of the Olympic tournament before they take the ice in Saturday's bronze medal game.

“For a lot of us, that part is new and everybody is pretty down after you lose a game like that. I just hope the boys will listen to the comments and understand the urgency of it,” said Slovakia's Canadian head coach Craig Ramsay. “It is a chance to showcase how Slovak hockey has moved forward. This is an opportunity to show the world who we are.”

ROC 2, Sweden 1 (PSS)

ROC are now a game away from a second-straight Olympic title after coming through an epic semi-final with Sweden.

Arseniy Gritsyuk converted his side's eighth penalty shot of a shootout as ROC won 2-1 to reach the gold medal game.

This was a slow-burner of a match with the first period failing to yield a goal. But, then, just 15 seconds into the second period, ROC went in front through Anton Slepyshev.

"That's what we need right now. In all of those games, it's a good rhythm," said ROC forward Sergei Andronov of Slepyshev's strike. "The key is not thinking about the next day. Today is the day. We need to win the day, that's it."

Win it they did, eventually.

Sweden captain Anton Lander scored six minutes into third period to level the scores, and that's how it remained until the shootout.

ROC head coach Alexei Zhamnov said afterwards, "I think the whole team played well because Sweden are a very good team. They've played well the whole tournament. We knew it was going to be a tough game."

Mikhail Grigorenko added, "Honestly it was really nerve-racking. We knew it was not going to be a high-scoring game. I think every player on my team played his heart out. We played for each other. Credit to the Swedes, they fought hard."

Olympic Men's Ice Hockey medal round schedule

Here's a look at the medal round schedule:

Saturday (19 February)
Bronze medal game
21:10 Sweden v. Slovakia

Sunday (20 February)
Gold medal game
12:10 Finland v. Sweden