Unable to defeat the giants of North America, Finland and Slovakia will have to settle for battling for bronze on Saturday afternoon.

The two nations previously met in preliminary play, with Slovakia taking that contest 4-1. Slovakia took home bronze at the Beijing Games in 2022, the first Olympic hockey medal in program history. Finland won gold in 2022, and previously earned back-to-back bronze medals when NHL players last competed at the Olympics in 2010 and 2014.

Saturday’s bronze-medal match kicks off at 12:40 p.m. MT. Ahead of puck drop, here’s a look at each team’s tournament so far, and a preview of the match-up.

Points leaders: Mikko Rantanen (2-4-6), Sebastian Aho (3-2-5)

Finland kicked off this Olympic tournament in poor form with their  shock loss to Slovakia, but they responded with a strong 4-1 win of their own over Sweden. They then wrapped group play with a commanding 11-0 triumph over the host Italians.

Earning a bye to the quarterfinals, they suffered a scare against a determined Swiss group. Finland fell down 2-0 to Switzerland in the first period, but found two late goals and an overtime marker to scrape through. Finland flipped the script on that near upset in the quarterfinals, going up 2-0 early in the second against Canada in the semifinals. Unfortunately for the Finns, Canada pulled off their own comeback, stealing a 3-2 win. Still, Finland showed a lot of determination, and a strong ability to frustrate one of the world’s best offences through 50 minutes of play.

Points leaders: Juraj Slafkovsky (4-4-8), Dalibor Dvorsky (3-3-6)

Slovakia pulled off a major upset over Finland to open preliminary play, powered by a two-goal performance from 2022 Olympic MVP Juraj Slafkovsky. They followed that up with a shaky 3-2 win over a weak Italian team, then fell 5-3 to Sweden. Still, with a last-minute goal against the Swedes, they finished atop Group B on goal difference.

In the quarterfinals, Slovakia were the only team to not need overtime, putting together a dominant 6-2 win over Germany. Unfortunately, their Cinderella story run came to end against the United States, falling 6-2 in the semifinals, but they still have a chance to come away with some hardware.

Slovakia also features the Calgary Flames sole entrant at this Olympic tournament in forward Martin Pospisil. The 26-year-old earned his first point of the season with an assist in the quarterfinals.

As the old adage goes, “it’s hard to beat a good team twice.” Slovakia may have taken the tournament’s opening match over Finland in commanding fashion, but Finland have come together as a unit since then, and shown how threatening their offence can be. Slovakia have had a strong tournament compared to expectations, but saw their weaknesses exposed, namely defensively, in a crushing loss to the US. Once again, Finland come in as the favourite in this one, but Slafkovsky and Slovakia are certainly determined to play spoiler for a second time to find their way back on the podium.

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