BEIJING, February 18. /TASS/. The national ice hockey team of Finland advanced to the final match of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China with the 2-0 win over Slovakia on Friday.

The goals for Finland were scored by Sakari Manninen on the 16th minute of the opening period and Harri Pesonen on the 60th minute of the closing period.

Finland is now set to meet in the match for the Olympic gold the winner of another semifinal encounter, which is scheduled to be played later in the day between Team ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) and Sweden.

"Going to the Olympic final is like a dream," the official website of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) quoted Manninen as saying after the win over Slovaks.

Finland’s Head Coach Jukka Jalonen said after the semifinals win over Slovakia he wished his players to be more aggressive in the offence.

"If you want to win these types of games, you have to defend and I think we did that extremely well," Jalonen said. "There was not very much room for the Slovak forwards. It’s one of our strengths, but we would have liked to play a little better offensively."

Pesonen, who scored a goal against Slovakia today, said speaking about his team and the 2022 Olympics on the whole: "I knew coming into the Olympics that we'd have a good, solid team, a veteran team with a lot of experienced guys, but every tournament is a mystery [in terms of] how it goes and how it ends."

The final ice hockey match of the 2022 Olympics is scheduled for February 20, while the game for the bronze medal will take place on February 19.

At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, the Russian national ice hockey team played under the status of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) and eventually won the Olympic gold defeating Germany 4-3 in sudden death overtime in the final match.

The ice hockey competition at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing runs between February 9 and 20.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are being held between February 4 and 20. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).