Finland v Austria 8-4 - The depth of talent for Finland allowed a misstep to be avoided in its opening game of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Austria scored twice in the first 10 minutes, including a shocking goal on the first shift, before Finland rallied with goals by six players in an 8-4 victory at Bolshoy Ice Dome in a Group B preliminary-round game Thursday afternoon. The Finns know that is no recipe for success in a tournament loaded with superpowers.
"I think we have to get back to being tighter defensively," said Finland defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who said the early start (noon local time) and the larger ice surface contributed to some of his team's sluggishness. "Hopefully we can score three or four goals a game and that should be enough against these good countries. That was [the] first game, probably not the best one Finland played, but we take it and move on."
Finland was able to overcome a hat trick by Austria forward Michael Grabner. Mikael Granlund of the Minnesota Wild and Jarkko Immonen, a late addition as an injury replacement, each scored twice for the winners. The victory was tempered slightly by the absence of Teemu Selanne, the Finland captain. The Anaheim Ducks forward appeared to be injured in the first period and did not play during the final 40 minutes. Finland coach Erkka Westerlund said Selanne suffered a "small upper-body injury" and should be available Friday against Norway. Grabner of the New York Islanders, one of three NHL players on the Austrian roster, shocked the Finns when he rifled a one-timer past goalie Tuukka Rask, of the Boston Bruins, 36 seconds into the game. The speedy wing would add two third-period goals to complete the first hat trick of this tournament.
"It's always nice and fun to score goals, but at the same time you want to win games," Grabner said. "Unfortunately, today we gave them too many chances and they capitalized on most of them."
A little less than five minutes after Grabner's first goal, Granlund tied the game 1-1. Austria's Thomas Hundertpfund then gave his team a second unexpected lead, with goals on two of its first three shots. Hundertpfund's goal served as a wake-up call for the Finns.
"We weren't ready; they got the goal and even battled back a couple of times there," said Rask, who finished with 14 saves. "It's not a good start, but a good thing that we never let our guard down, we just kept going."
The defensive breakdowns prevalent on the first two goals were temporarily eradicated (they returned in the third period) and the offense found its stride, scoring two goals in eight seconds in the final minute of the first period. First, Olli Maatta, the precocious defenseman from the Pittsburgh Penguins, fired a low slap shot through traffic to beat Austrian goalie Bernhard Starkbaum for a 3-2 lead at 19:25. The goal was redemption for Maatta, who was one the ice for each of Austria's first two goals and had Hundertpfund's bounce off his skate past Rask. Immonen then scored by pouncing on a rebound and shoveling it home with 27 seconds remaining for a 4-2 lead.
"The last two goals in the last minute, they hurt a lot," Grabner said. "To end the period 2-2, it's a lot better feeling than 4-2. It's always tough because now you have to play some comeback hockey. When you get scored on in the last minute, it gets the morale of the team down a little bit and then you have to work it back up. But it is tough against a team like that that is so skilled and so fast."
Sami Lepisto scored Finland's other goal in the first period. Finland, expected to battle Canada for first place in Group B, added to its lead with two goals in the second. Petri Kontiola, moved up after the departure of Selanne, figured in both. His pass set up Jussi Jokinen's rebound goal, and 27 seconds later Kontiola pounced on a rebound of a Granlund shot and banked it off Starkbaum for Finland's sixth goal. Selanne played eight shifts in the first period, totaling 5:27. He had an assist on the first goal by Granlund, registered a shot and was plus-1. During the first period, Finnish trainers were working on Selanne's neck area while he sat on the bench. Starkbaum made 44 saves in a performance which was, at times, brilliant.
"He is not the reason we lost this game," said Austrian coach Manny Viveiros said, who blamed his team's indecisiveness for the unflattering scoreline.
Canada v Norway 3-1 - All of the gold-medal contenders have opened the 2014 Sochi Olympics with a victory, but the two that played Thursday at Bolshoy Ice Dome had more trouble than expected. A few hours after Russia struggled to put away Slovenia, Canada defeated Norway 3-1 in Group B on goals from Shea Weber, Jamie Benn and Drew Doughty. It was a victory with flaws for Canada, which looked disjointed at times. Eventually the Canadians started to dominate, but even then the Norwegians had a power play in the final two minutes and were down two goals. For Norway, a country that has qualified for the Olympics nine previous times and never finished higher than ninth, keeping the game close against a traditional power qualified as a success.
"We got pushed back into the defensive zone throughout the second and third period, and that kind of emptied our tank there, but we kept the score low," Norway forward Patrick Thoresen said. "[It is] a little bit too bad that they got the 3-1 goal so early after we reduced the score to 2-1. Maybe we could have shaken them a little more in the end, but obviously they're the best team in the world so we have to be a little bit satisfied, too, even if it hurts to lose."
"I thought in the second and third [periods] we were really good," Canada captain Sidney Crosby said. "[It] took us a period to really get our feet under us. I think that is normal when you throw a bunch of guys together. I think getting our speed and figuring it out was important. I think we played at a really high pace, and I thought we did a really good job of that in the second and the third and hopefully that is something that will get better."
It took a little more than 26 minutes before Weber, the Nashville Predators captain, put Canada in front with a blast from the left point. After Weber's goal, the Canadians began to exert their might on the Norwegians. Benn, the Dallas Stars captain, made it 2-0 at 15:19. Patrice Bergeron sent a pass from the right wall to Benn, who snapped a shot in off the left post while off balance. Benn had been on the receiving end of a big open-ice hit from Norway captain Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, who delivered several crunching blows and spearheaded a physical approach against the bigger, faster Canadians. Bergeron had two assists as coach Mike Babcock rotated him, Benn, John Tavares and Martin St. Louis on Canada's fourth line. St. Louis earned shifts on other lines to find ice time as the 13th forward.
"They were outstanding," Babcock said of the fourth liners. "Two played on the power play, two played on the penalty kill, and then they filled in all over the place. I thought they were really good and were one of our better lines, to tell you the truth. I thought Bergeron had a real strong game, Tavares had a real strong game, Benn was moving, and St. Louis played all over. Those four guys, for me, played well."
Norway did not have a shot on goal in the first 18 minutes of the second period. At one point the Norwegians were called for icing on three consecutive stoppages. They finished the period with two shots on goal, but one effectively was a dump-in and the other rolled off a player's stick to Canada goaltender Carey Price.
"It's being really focused on the details," Canada forward Jonathan Toews said. "But for the most part we've got to trust our instincts and make plays when we know they are there. We just have to have patience and confidence with the puck. It was fun. You could see us loosen up as the game went on. We're just going to keep on getting better."
The Canadians were unable to put the Norwegians away, and Thoresen cut the lead to 2-1 22 seconds into the third period. Price was unable to come up with the puck behind his net with Norway on the power play. Mathis Olimb snared it, skated into position, and Thoresen deflected his shot. Canada did not need long to answer. Doughty split two Norwegian forwards, skated into the slot, and backhanded a shot into the top left corner at 1:47 of the third. There were some nervy times early for Canada. Norway was able to keep Canada scoreless in the first period when the Canadians failed to generate much time in the offensive zone, let alone quality scoring chances. Lars Haugen stopped all nine shots he faced for Norway in the first. Just like Russia in a 5-2 victory earlier in the day, Canada not only was expected to win, but do so convincingly. Babcock and his players said they were not concerned about style points, though goal differential can play a role in seeding later in the tournament.
"[Doughty] was telling us that was the first ever backhand goal of his life," Babcock said. "I don't know if I buy that."
"What am I going to say? I mean, you can watch the game and everyone's going to have their own opinion," Crosby said when asked about possible criticism for not winning by enough. "I thought we generated a lot of good chances. I thought we could've had more goals. I thought their goalie did some good things. But they play good as a team and every team here is here for a reason. There's a lot of good teams here and we respect them, and we don't expect games like that."
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