Finland vs USA Betting Odds – USA Will Win Goalie Duel

Anyone looking for a high scoring game will be highly disappointed when Finland and USA meet in the semi-final of Olympic Men’s Ice-Hockey. Ryan Miller and Mikka Kiprusoff have been the best goaltenders in the tournament by a large margin, combining for a 7-1 record with 3 shutouts. 

The Storyline – Finland vs USA betting odds breakdown
After winning the silver four years ago in Turin, the Finnish team will go looking for another shot at the gold when they meet the USA on Friday. Sweden was ousted by Slovakia win another of the quarterfinal games which leaves Finland as the top returning team. USA is already far ahead of their eighth place finish in 2006 in which they lost to Finland in the quarterfinals. The USA really wants to bring home the gold on the 30th anniversary of the miracle on ice, but they will have to go through Finland to get there; just like they did in the final in 1980.

Offensive Matchups – Finland vs USA betting odds breakdown 
Finland is great defensively but their style of play affects the amount of chances that they get at the offensive end. While they did manage 10 goals against Belarus and Germany, they were held to just two in games against Sweden and the Czech Republic. Not a good sign when they are going up against a goalie with the best goals against average in the tournament. Niklas Hagman is the top goal-scorer with three after scoring the winner in the quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

USA boasts some of the best goal-scoring talent in the NHL. Patrick Kane and Zach Parise may be small in stature, but they pack quite a scoring punch. The only problem is they have not been able to land their haymaker as of yet. Going into their last game the duo, that has 53 goals and 128 points in the NHL, has only managed six points after Parise collected two goals in the American win over Switzerland. The rest of the team has picked up the slack and they currently sit second in goals per game with four.

Betting Edge: USA

Defensive Matchups – Finland vs USA betting odds breakdown 
Those doing sports betting know Miikka Kiprusoff leads the tournament with a 94.7 save percentage and has tallied 2 shutouts already. He will backstop a team that likes to defend first and score second leading to only four goals allowed, and considering three of them came in one game, the USA will be hard pressed to put one in the back of the net. By clogging up the neutral zone, being aggressive on the puck and counterattacking, the Finns are rarely exposed on defence, which is the style they have to play as they do not boast the highly talented scorers of teams like Russia, Canada and Sweden. The American team could get bogged down along the boards as Finland is a physical team and a lot of the USA forwards are undersized.

Ryan Miller has been unbelievable for the American team and if he stays hot, they should be able to ride him to the gold medal game. After stopping 42 of 45 shots against the Canadians, it is hard to think he will allow very many goals against a Finnish side that has scored just two goals in two games against teams that made it to the quarterfinal round.

Betting Edge: Finland

Notable Injuries – Finland vs USA betting odds breakdown 
Jeri Lehtinen is banged up but should play and Joni Pitkanen will be back after serving a one game suspension for elbowing a Swedish player in the face during a game on February 21.

All are relatively healthy on the American side.

Betting Edge: USA

Betting Prediction – Finland vs USA betting odds breakdown 
The experts doing the sportsbook know the Americans are very disciplined and have been assessed only 20 minutes in penalties which will be needed as Finland has scored seven power-play goals already. This game will really come down to which goaltender cracks first and with the offensive minded American team that will throw a lot of shots on the Finnish net, it will most likely be Kiprusoff.

Pick: USA