Finland Beats Switzerland in 2022 Olympic Women's Hockey Bronze-Medal Game

Finland rolled to a 4-0 victory over Switzerland on Wednesday to capture the bronze medal in the women's hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Viivi Vainikka, Susanna Tapani, Nelli Laitinen and Michelle Karvinen scored for the Finns, who dominated the Swiss in the shot battle, 47-15, and tallied three of their goals on special teams (two on the power play and one shorthanded).

Finland has now captured four bronze medals in women's hockey at the Olympics. It also took third place at the 1998 Nagano Games in Japan, the 2010 Vancouver Games in Canada and the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea.

Vainikka opened the scoring midway through the first period to cap a slick sequence of passes by the Finns:

After a scoreless second frame, Finland started to pull away in the third beginning with a strong individual effort and wicked wrister by Tapani:

Laitinen and Karvinen added power-play goals inside the game's final six minutes to end any thought of a potential Switzerland comeback.

Anni Keisala recorded the shutout between the pipes for Finland. Elisa Holopainen (two assists) was the only player to record more than one point as part of a well-balanced offensive effort.

Wednesday's win also avenged a 3-2 loss to the Swiss during the group stage earlier in this year's Games.

Looking ahead, the women's hockey tournament will wrap up Thursday in Beijing (Wednesday night at 11:10 p.m. ET in the U.S.) as the rivalry between Team USA and Canada takes center stage once again.

The Americans and Canadians faced off in five of the previous six Olympic finals. Canada holds a 3-2 edge in those prior goal-medal meetings and also scored a 4-2 win when the sides battled to close out group play last week.

Four years ago, however, the U.S. won in a shootout to land atop the podium for the first time since 1998.