Olympic Mens Hockey Betting: USA vs. Finland, Canada vs. Slovakia
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Ricky Rothstein
After a thrilling tournament with plenty of surprises and upsets, we’re now down to the final four — USA, Finland, Canada and Slovakia — that will play for Winter Olympic gold. Let’s take an in-depth look at the hockey betting options for these two semifinal matches; all sports betting lines come courtesy the Sports Interaction online sportsbook.
The biggest storyline here is that it’s young vs. old — the new-guard American squad taking on a veteran Finnish team. The US has been led by young bucks like 25-year-old Zach Parise (2G, 3A), 22-year-old Bobby Ryan (1G, 1A) and standout defenseman, 25-year-old Ryan Suter (4A, team-best +6) — but let’s make no mistake here. The real reason this team is competing for a spot in the gold medal game is largely due to the work of Buffalo Sabres netminder Ryan Miller. Miller has a .944 save percentage and a minuscule 1.25 goals against average, and is earning every outstanding number (he’s facing an average of 23 shots a game).
Finland, meanwhile, is being led by the old-guard of Olympians — 39-year-old Teemu Selanne, 35-year-old Saku Koivu and 30-year-old Niklas Hagman, who leads the Finns with three goals and two assists through four games. The big news for the Finns in this game is that they’ll welcome back star blueliner Joni Pitkanen to the lineup; Pitkanen was suspended for the quarterfinal round after taking a match penalty in the preliminaries, and that was taxing to a fairly thin Finnish defense corps that doesn’t have much behind the big three of Pitkanen, Sami Salo and Kimmo Timonen.
Not to sound simplistic, but this game will be decided between the pipes. Finnish goalie Miikka Kiprusoff actually has better numbers than Miller thus far (.946 sv %, 1.33 GAA), but the two are amongst the NHL’s elite and their battle should be a classic.
Canada (1.10) vs. Slovakia (6.00)
Canada is a huge favourite here and that’s really no surprise — the stunning 7-3 win over a powerhouse Russian squad in the quarterfinals caught the attention of every hockey fan on the planet. The Canadians have been scoring points at will, led by the five goals in five games from Jarome Iginla and the seven assists in five games from Jonathan Toews (it should be noted that Canada rung up some huge point totals in eight-goal romps over Norway and Germany). The switch in goaltenders from Marty Brodeur to Roberto Luongo seems to have been a masterstroke and, just to add on to the pile, the Canadians are also playing on home soil in front of a largely pro-Canadian crowd. Should they lose this one, it’ll be considered a massive upset.
But don’t dismiss the Slovakians just yet. Slovakia, which began competing in hockey after the breakup of Czechoslavakia in 1993, has never reached an Olympic semifnal. They know this is something of a magical run, having knocked off the Russians and Swedes en route to the semifinals. It’s uncharted territory for the Slovaks, although not for many of their star NHLers. Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra all have extensive big-game and playoff experience and should be amped up for this huge contest.