Eeli Tolvanen Gets Four Points in Finland’s 5-2 Victory Over Germany

Finland has taken their first game of the 2018 Winter Olympics, with Eeli Tolvanen leading the way in his Olympic debut to help his country defeat Germany by a score of 5-2 on Thursday afternoon in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Power plays were the name of the game out of the gate between Germany and Finland. At 3:13 on the first advantage of the game, Sami Lepisto finished off a tremendous passing play by Petri Kontiola and Tolvanen, sending a hard shot past Danny aus den Birken to give the Finns the expected first goal of the battle.

But after Jani Lajunen took a double minor for high sticking, the Germans got one on a similar passing play. Brooks Macek would blast one past Mikko Koskinen after taking a feed from former NHLer Christian Ehrhoff blowing the puck past the Finnish netminder to make it 1-1 at 8:41.

The Finns would get one before the end of the opening frame. At 15:30, Mika Pyöräläs scored after a scramble in front of the net, Lajunen touching the puck just prior following some good offensive zone puck control by the Finns. Pyörälä would get the last laugh, tapping the puck in at the side of the net to give the Finns their lead back.

A pair of goals by players at two different portions of their careers scored to make it 4-1 Finland just before the end of the second period. At 17:22, Nashville Predators prospect Eeli Tolvanen scored on a blister of a wrister, blowing a hard wrist shot past aus den Birken to make it 3-1 with his first career goal at the Winter Olympics.

Then, at 18:43, veteran Finnish blueliner Laase Kukkonen scored his first international goal since the 2006 World Championships, finishing off a nice passing play between Petri Kontiola and Tolvanen to make it 4-1.

A poor shift by the Finns to kick off the third saw the Germans jump back into contention. At 1:51, Frank Hordler got lucky after Miro Heiskanen gave away the puck near the Finnish net, only to have Hordler's shot deflect off of Atte Ohtamaa's stick and in to give Germany their second goal of the game.

The Finns had a lot of momentum, but Tolvanen's fourth point of the night helped put the Finns up by three. At 12:48, another power-play goal gave Finland the 5-2 advantage after Tolvanen set up Joonas Kemppainen in front of the net, with the former Boston Bruins forward tapping in the puck. It was enough to secure the victory for Finland, a big first win after two upsets opened up the tournament on Wednesday.

Finland won't get much time to rest before facing fellow Scandinavian nation Norway at 21:10 local time on Friday evening. Germany will also play at the same time, taking on Sweden before finishing the round-robin portion of the tournament against Norway on Sunday.

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