Finland wins 1st ever men's gold, China makes breakthrough in ice hockey
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E-mail Xinhua, February 20, 2022
Finland grabbed its first ever men's Olympic gold medal with a 2-1 victory over the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), while China scored its first ever goal in Beijing 2022's ice hockey event which concluded on Sunday.
Slovakia also made progress as it claimed its first Olympic men's ice hockey medal after defeating Sweden 4-0 in the bronze medal match.
Slovakia equalized with 44 seconds left in regular time and beat the United States 3-2 in a shootout in the quarterfinals. That was the first time since Turin 2006 that neither Canada, who was eliminated by Sweden, nor the U.S. has advanced to the semifinals.
China's men's team, ranked 32nd in the world, lost to the U.S., Germany and Canada in the group stage on its Olympic debut.
Chinese forward Fu Shuai scored the first ever goal for the team in Olympic history against world No. 5 Germany.
On the women's side, Marie-Philip Poulin led Canada to their fifth ice hockey gold medal after beating the U.S. 3-2 in the final.
The U.S. and Canada have faced off in the gold medal game at six of the seven Olympics since the women's competition was introduced at the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter Games.
Poulin is the only ice hockey player to score in four straight Olympic finals, with seven goals to her name in the past four gold medal games.
Now Canada's women's team has won five Olympic golds and two silvers, while the U.S. has claimed two golds, four silvers and a bronze in the Olympics.
Finland took the bronze at Beijing 2022 with a 4-0 victory over Switzerland.
After losing to the Czech Republic in the opener at the Games, China took their first victory by beating Denmark 3-1, and went on to edge Japan 2-1 in a penalty shootout for its second win, before being knocked out in a 2-1 defeat to Sweden.
It was the first time in 12 years that China's women's team competed in ice hockey at an Olympics. They finished seventh in Vancouver 2010, but didn't qualify for Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.
"The Chinese women's ice hockey team showed fighting spirit at Beijing 2022," said head coach Brian Idalski.
"Hopefully after the Olympics, young girls in China will be inspired to play the sport," he added.
