There was no confusion over our rooting interests in this one. With Finland facing off against Germany at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, we had current Flyer Kimmo Timonen and former Flyers Antero Niittymaki, Lasse Kukkonen, and Joni Pitkanen all suiting up for Suomi. Niitty, who was the MVP of the 2006 games in Torino, where Finland won silver, was on the bench backing up Nik Backstrom.
Kimmo was pretty visible out there on the ice though. He moved the puck well all night, ran the powerplay from the point, and scored two goals on the man advantage.
The first was on a back-door play with Kimmo streaking in unscathed; the second was a sharp wrister from the point. Great to see him pick up that scoring touch and key a 5-0 rout on the strength of 4 powerplay goals on 6 attempts. On the sixth opportunity, the Fins briefly rotated Kimmo into the slot in hopes of getting him the hat trick, but they couldn't get the puck in to him.
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Teemu Selanne, with an assist on Timonen's second goal, became the all-time points leader in Olympic play with 37 (20 goals, 17 assists). After watching the Finnish Flash tear it up in the NHL and various international tournaments for a long time, it's fitting to see him earn that distinction. Up next for Finland is a rematch with Team Sweden, who beat them for the gold in Torino.