Finland wins Olympic bronze in women’s hockey
Susanna Tapani scored her team-leading sixth goal, Anni Keisala stopped 15 shots and Finland claimed its fourth Olympic women’s hockey bronze medal with a 4-0 win over Switzerland.
Wednesday night’s victory earned Finland a bronze medal in consecutive Olympics.
Viivi Vainikka and Nelli Laitinen also scored in a rematch of last year’s world championship bronze medal game, which Finland won 3-1. The Finns bounced back from a 3-2 loss to the Swiss in the preliminary round.
Switzerland’s Andrea Braendli stopped 34 of the first 35 she faced, and 43 overall. The Finns pulled away by scoring three times in the third period. The Swiss fell short in an attempt to match their best finish at the 2014 Sochi Games, when they beat Sweden to win the bronze medal.
Vainikka opened the scoring 11:38 into the first period by driving to the front of the net and slipping in a loose puck after Braendli stopped a shot from Noora Tulus. Tapani scored on a short-handed 2-on-1 break 3:24 into the third period. Laitinen and Karvinen sealed the win with power-play goals in the final 5:36.
Keisala finished the tournament stopping 173 of 189 shots, while appearing in all seven games. Her best save against Switzerland came midway through the second period, when she got her glove up to stop Lena Marie Lutz’s shot on a breakaway.
On Thursday, the defending Olympic champion United States and Canada meet in the gold-medal game for the sixth time in seven tournaments.