Finland vs Slovakia: Suomi to Start the Olympics with a Win

The Slovaks have not beat the Finns at major international tournaments for 11 straight games. Will Craig Ramsey's charges end their unsuccessful streak?

In recent years, the Finnish team has achieved tremendous success in the international arena. At the 2019 World Cup, Jukka Jalonen's team became the world champion. They almost defended the title at the next world championship, losing 2:3 in the final to Canada in overtime. This fact alone makes Suomi one of the main favorites now. In addition, they brought to the Chinese capital a powerful and experienced squad. Most of these players are participants in the last two World Championships, where they had to fight with hockey players from the NHL. Now the level of opponents will be noticeably weaker, which makes the chances of the Finns to triumph more evident.

The Slovak national team is a regular Olympics competitor, even though they have to qualify every time. For the 2022 Olympics, Craig Ramsey's charges had to beat such serious opponents as Austria, Belarus 2:1 each, and Poland 5:1. Alas, the Slovaks haven't done much at other tournaments in a long time. The last time they won a medal was in 2012. Then only twice made it out of the group. At the 2021 World Cup in Riga, the team was beaten 1:6 by the Americans in the quarterfinals. Now Slovakia has a very tenacious and unyielding squad, but they have little chance of winning.

The Slovak national team fell in the matches against Finland 11 times. Jukka Jalonen's charges are the favorites. Their higher skill level, more international experience, and the history of the rivalry with the White and Blues will put pressure on the Slovaks. As a result, we bet on Finland's victory with a handicap (-1.5).

These teams can not be described as clearly offensive. On the contrary, their main trump card is defense and counterattack. So we can expect cautious actions and a minimum of mistakes. Therefore, the scoring chances are scarce. Moreover, the Finns have shot four times in the last six head-to-head encounters so that we would expect a total under 4.5 goals.

Harri Pesonen is one of the key players for Finland. In the victorious World Cup 2019, he scored 7 points (4 goals + 3 assists) in 10 games. After a disappointing season in the KHL, the Finn returned to the Swiss championships, where he regained his previous level. In 43 games for the Langnau Tigers, he's already recorded 42 points (20 goals + 22 assists). Harri is one of the top ten scorers in the league. It is worth looking at a bet on the total over 0.5 points in such a situation.