Finland breaks single-game Olympic men’s hockey goal record in NHL participation era

Team Finland made a bit of Olympic history on Saturday as it turned in a dominant performance in an 11-0 win in their final Group B round robin contest against the host Team Italy.

Those 11 goals, and the resulting 11-goal margin, set records during the NHL player participation era of the men’s hockey Olympic tournament for goals in a single game and margin of victory in a single game.

The Finns had plenty of incentive to run up the score on the hosts, as Finland entered the game in prime position to earn the No. 4 seed in the quarterfinal round as the top second-place team in any of the three groups.

Now, with an 11-goal win in its back pocket, Finland is likely to win any tiebreaker on goal differential with other teams that finish second in their respective groups.

That bye into the quarterfinals would allow them to bypass the qualification round and get valuable extra rest ahead of the quarters. With Anton Lundell missing Saturday’s game due to illness, that rest could prove to be quite a valuable asset.

Sebastian Aho got the scoring started just under seven minutes into the first period, and he was joined on the scoresheet by Mikael Granlund and Kaapo Kakko for a 3-0 lead after the opening stanza.

Joel Kiviranta got the scoring started in the second period before Kakko and Granlund each added their second tallies of the night to make it 6-0 after two.

The Finns tacked on five more in the third, as Miro Heiskanen, Artturi Lehkonen, Aho, Joel Armia and Kiviranta scored successive goals to get the game to its record-setting margin.

Finland’s win clinched the group for Team Slovakia, which won the three-way tiebreaker in the group by virtue of head-to-head goal differential after a late goal cut their deficit against Team Sweden from 5-2 to 5-3 earlier Saturday.

Finland wrapped up its slate in the group stage with two regulation wins and a regulation loss. The Finns fell in their opener in a surprising upset at Slovakia’s hands before bouncing back with an impressive win over archrival Sweden and this drubbing of Italy.