It's been said that there are two ways to play a game: to win, or, not to lose.
On Wednesday night in the men's hockey quarterfinals, both Team Finland and Team Czech Republic, employed the later strategy.
However, thanks to a brilliant goal-tending performance from Miikka Kiprusoff and a busted chin-strap (more on that later), Team Finland will advance to the semi-finals and face Team USA on Friday.
The malaise that plagued Finland during Sunday's game against their arch-rivals from Sweden appeared to still be present at the start of their elimination game against the Czech Republic.
Neither team played with much emotion and both seemed more concerned about making anything resembling a risky play than trying to generate a scoring chance.
Finland had several opportunities to take control of the game in the form of four straight power-play chances.
But, their power-play which had generated six goals over the first two games of the tournament was tentative and disorganized, much like it was on Sunday.
The Czech's didn't provide much of an offensive threat, but Finland's defensive awareness was the on ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Matt Hutter
2010 Olympic Mens Hockey: With the Czechs Finnished, Team Finland Advances
February 25th, 2010 by Matt Hutter Leave a reply »
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