VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – An underdog finally scared a favorite in women’s hockey.
Finland fought off China 2-1 Tuesday night to finalize the playoff field in the women’s Olympic tournament. Venla Hovi scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, and Finland killed off a late penalty to clinch a spot in the semifinals.
Karoliina Rantamaki scored the tying goal in the second period for the Finns, who outshot China 43-5 but still trailed after 28 minutes.
“We never got nervous, really,” said Hovi, who has two goals in the tournament. “We talked about patience before the game. That’s all we talked about. We knew we would get some goals even if it didn’t happen right away.”
Captain Wang Linuo scored a short-handed goal with 1:50 left in the first period for China, which lost 12-1 to the Americans two days ago. Shi Yao made 41 saves, but was beaten by a puck tipped by her own forward for Finland’s first goal.
“That goalie is good, but we made her look even better than she is,” Rantamaki said.
Except for Wang’s exciting score, goalie Noora Raty barely was tested as Finland pushed ahead in the second period and hung on through a tense final frame, including a Chinese power play for the final 1:50 with Rantamaki in the box.
“It was terrible,” Rantamaki said. “I don’t remember when I ever felt like that before. It was a terrible two minutes.”
Finland and the United States, which meet Thursday, will advance to next week’s semifinals along with Canada and Sweden – no surprise for any of the sport’s four dominant programs.
With Canada and the U.S. outscoring their two opponents by a combined 53-2 so far, the Olympic tournament has been a series of blowouts endangering the sport’s credibility on an international stage. China’s solid effort under Finnish coach Hannu Saintula finally provided a bit of parity, even if the expected four teams still advanced to the playoffs.
Although the Finns dominated puck possession from shortly after the opening faceoff, they fell behind after allowing a slick play by Wang. While killing a penalty, she slapped the puck away from a pinching defenseman and broke out on a 2-on-1, faking a pass before beating Raty with a slap shot.
“I was at fault,” said Raty, who plays at the University of Minnesota. “It’s just hard when you don’t see many shots. These are the hardest games for goalies. You can’t get into it.”
The Chinese celebrated to chants of “Jia You!” (“Let’s Go!”) familiar to many from the Beijing Games, and they hung onto the lead despite getting outshot 18-3 in the first period, earning another ovation.
Finland finally evened it with 10:47 left in the second period when Rantamaki circled the net and put the puck in front, where Chinese forward Jin Fengling accidentally tipped it past Shi’s outstretched pad. Jin, who scored China’s only goal against the United States, slammed her stick on the ice in frustration.
“For me, it was a little disappointing,” Shi said. “I think the score should have been more even. If I could do better, we’d have a hope to win. I did OK. I just feel pitiful that I let in some of the pucks.”
Hovi then put the Finns ahead nearly five minutes later during 4-on-4 play, outskating two defenders and flipping a backhand underneath Shi for her second goal of the Olympics.
“It was like a skating competition, and I won,” Hovi said with a smile.