Finland, ROC advance to men's hockey gold-medal game

Finland claimed a 2-0 win over Slovakia on Friday and a spot in the men's ice hockey final at the Beijing Games helped by Sakari Manninen's first-period goal and Harri Sateri's shutout netminding.

Methodical yet mighty, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) men's hockey team will be there to meet the Finns, returning to the gold-medal game to defend their Olympic title.

Arseni Gritsyuk scored the winner to cap off an eight-round shootout and put the ROC into the men's hockey final by beating Sweden 2-1 Friday night.

Slovakia will play Sweden for bronze, going for its first hockey medal of any kind since the breakup of Czechoslovakia.

The Finns had easily handled Slovakia in their tournament opener, cruising to a 6-2 win, but this time faced much more determined opponents battling for a place in Sunday's gold medal game.

Finland scored the only goal of an opening period that produced few scoring chances.

WATCH | Highlights from Finland's 2-0 win:

But Manninen made one of Finland's seven shots count by pouncing on a rebound and lifting it over sprawling netminder Patrik Rybar for a 1-0 lead.

The rest of the game featured a goaltending duel between Rybar and Sateri, who made 28 saves to earn the shutout, with Harri Pesonen finding the net to round off the win for Finland.

Finland has regularly featured on the Olympic podium, returning home with a medal from three of the last four Winter Games but has yet to reach the top step.

"I knew coming into the Olympics that we're going to have a really good team, solid team, veteran team, a lot of experienced guys," said Pesonen. "But you know, every tournament is kind of a mystery how it goes and how it ends but I'm definitely happy and what a great opportunity for us to play for the brightest medal."

WATCH | Manninen puts Finland ahead early:

"It's a big thing that we made it to semi-finals but now we still have [an] unfinished job in here and we need to do our best tomorrow that we can bring the medal home," said Slovakia's 17-year-old scoring sensation Juraj Slafkovsky, who is tied for the Games lead in goals with five.

ROC edges Sweden in shootout

The ROC hung tough to force OT after Sweden tied it on captain Anton Lander's rebound goal early in the third period. Anton Slepyshev, who spent three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, busted past former NHL defenceman Christian Folin down the left wing and slid the puck past Lars Johansson for the first ROC goal 15 seconds into the second.

Nikita Gusev and Yegor Yakolev also scored in the shootout. Sweden got shootout goals from Lucas Wallmark and Joakim Nordstrom but not the final save from Johansson it needed.

"It's huge for everybody individually, as a team and as a hockey country," Sateri said. "It is a big thing."

"It would be a huge achievement, but it will be a tough game," said 17-year-old forward Juraj Slafkovsky, who's tied for the tournament lead with five goals. "If we do our best, then I'm not worried that we can't win the game."