The 2026 Winter Olympics keep rolling in Milan, Italy on Saturday as the men’s hockey tournament reaches its final round. While the top two teams square off tomorrow in the final, the Bronze Medal Game between Slovakia and Finland means that one of these sides will head back home with a little more hardware than they arrived with. Both have shown plenty of fight throughout this tournament, but which one has the upper hand?
For those looking to get in on the betting action, look no further. Below, we’ll hit a preview, prediction and best bet for today’s men’s hockey matchup between Slovakia and Finland in the Bronze Medal Game.
Slovakia vs. Finland prediction, preview
Whew, what a tournament it’s been. Over the Quarterfinal and Semifinal rounds, almost all of the games saw goals scored in the final minutes to tie things up and force overtime, if not win outright. That goes for the women’s Gold Medal Game as well, so hockey fans have truly been treated by the majority of these matchups. The question is whether the Bronze Medal Game today will see another highly competitive, close affair between Slovakia and Finland.
The Slovakian team stunned throughout the Group Stage, taking Group B outright with two regulation wins and a lone loss, which came to Sweden. Notably, that stretch included a 4-1 victory over this same Finland side to begin the tournament. Once the playoff rolled around, Slovakia downed Germany 6-2 in a dominant Quarterfinals but was blown out by the same margin by the United States in the Semifinals. The Slovaks have often won with grit rather than pure offensive prowess, notably scoring the fewest goals (18) and recording the fewest SOG (136) of any team to reach a medal game. However, their numbers are still than the other rosters to. The same rings true on the defensive side of things, allowing 16 goals and 179 SOG to opponents — that scoring mark sits at six more goals than the next-closest potential medalist.
However, that’s not to say the Slovakian side is without talent. The interesting part of this equation is that they have just six current NHL players on the roster — headlined by none other than young superstar Juraj Slafkovsky, whose eight points in this tournament are more than all but three other skaters in the entire field. Dalibor Dvorsky has six points for the Slovaks and is joined by Adam Ruzicka and Pavol Regenda have five each. Between the pipes, AHL talent and Minnesota Wild prospect Samuel Hlavaj has converted a .915 SV%, though his GAA sits at 3.39.
As for Finland, the team entered this tournament with hopes of competing for a gold as one of the most star-studded lineups in the field. The Finns won a pair of games in regulation with the lone loss in group play coming to the Slovaks, but their group play was impressive to say the least as they hung 11 goals and 62 SOG on Italy to set new IIHF records for the NHL participation era. They did earn the final bye into the playoff, where a 3-2 overtime win against Switzerland saw them rally back from a 2-0 deficit with the equalizer coming in the game’s final minute. In the Semifinals, Finland held a 2-0 lead over tournament favorites Canada and faced the possibility to accomplish the unbelievable, but as often happens to teams who find themselves in that situation, they collapsed in the game’s closing stages to see their dreams of a gold medal crushed.
Still, this is an impressive group, totaling 21 goals across five games with 153 SOG in their favor. The Finns have also allowed just 10 goals and 137 SOG to opponents, so they’ve put strong two-way play on display.
In total, 24 of the 25 players on Finland’s roster are current NHLers. Mikko Rantanent paces the team with six points while Sebastian Aho (the team’s leading goalscorer with three), Joel Armia and Artturi Lehkonen have five apiece. Eeutu Luostarinen and Erik Haula have four points. In the net, Juuse Saros has locked in with a .934 SV% and 1.80 GAA as well, potentially fueling a hot second half from him when he returns to NHL play as well.
Slovakia vs. Finland pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Finland is a -1.5 favorite on the puck line with -325 odds of an outright win. Slovakia holds +260 odds on the Moneyline with the game total set at 5.5 combined goals.
As mentioned earlier, the Slovaks won the previous meeting between these teams 4-1 in the opening game of the tournament. In that one, the Finns outshot their opponent 40-25 but trailed throughout nearly the whole contest. Saros simply didn’t play his best hockey, though one of the goals came as an empty-netter in the late stages.
However, the netminder and his team have looked significantly better since that opening contest. Whether it was nerves or something else bothering Team Finland, they shook it off thereafter and led the best team in hockey for 50-odd minutes yesterday as well. After hanging in there against Canada and nearly having a chance to take the tournament favorites into overtime, there’s little reason to believe Slovakia will provide nearly as much resistance today. With far more high-end talent in their lines, the Finns should have a clear advantage and win this one by multiple goals.
