About 24 hours after a devastating loss, Finland found reason to smile.

While their blown 2-0 lead in a last-minute semifinal loss to Canada will sting, the Finns at least finished their performance at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics strong. A 6-1 victory over Slovakia, which lost 6-2 in the semifinals to the United States, ensured the defending gold medalists would not leave Milan empty-handed.

Finland jumped out to an early lead when Sebastian Aho jammed a loose puck past Slovak goaltender Samuel Hlavaj to open the scoring 7:27 into the first period. And for the second straight game, Erik Haula gave the Finns a 2-0 lead, this time wiring a shot from the outside early in the second period.

Like yesterday, Finland received pushback. A bad bounce off the glass turned into a beautiful backhand goal by Tomas Tatar in the final minute of the second period, making it a one goal game going into the final 20 minutes.

But goals separated by just 42 seconds by Roope Hintz and Kappo Kakko in the first half of the third period proved too much for Slovakia to overcome. Empty-netters by Joel Armia and Haula later in the frame sealed the deal.

Goaltender Juuse Saros stood tall, stopping 30 of 31 shots in the victory to complete an excellent Olympics in which he finished with a .940 save percentage, including one shutout. Armia (one goal, two assists), Miro Heiskanen (two assists) and Eeli Tolvanen (two assists) were among the team’s top contributors on Saturday.

After losing 4-1 to Slovakia in both teams’ opening round-robin game, Finland’s win clinches their fourth straight medal in an Olympics featuring NHL players (2006, 2010, 2014). This is Finland’s eighth Olympic men’s hockey medal and fifth bronze, as they denied Slovakia from winning bronze for the second straight Olympics. Their bronze in 2022 was their first men’s hockey Olympic medal.

Mikael Granlund and Olli Maatta were both part of Finland's bronze-winning 2014 team and both earned their second Olympic medals with the victory. The Finns won despite arguably their best player, Mikko Rantanen, missing the game to injury, but he was healthy enough to join his team on the ice for the post-game medal ceremony.