Finland's Juuse Saros stood on his head against Sweden

Juuse Saros stole the show for Team Finland on Friday in their 4-1 victory over Team Sweden in Group B action at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Finnish goaltender stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced, including 17 of 17 in the third period, to help his team bounce back from a 4-1 loss to Team Slovakia on Wednesday.

Saros, 30, has had a somewhat difficult NHL season behind an up-and-down Nashville Predators team, going 21-17-5 with an .892 save percentage in 44 games. But he’s been a bright spot for Finland so far at Milano-Cortina 2026, and even if he doesn’t get the start against Team Italy on Saturday, we certainly haven’t seen the last of him at this tournament.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk chatted with former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton about the standouts from the Finland/Sweden game. Unsurprisingly, Saros was at the top of their list, although he wasn’t the only one they mentioned.

Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ll start on the Finnish side. Juuse Saros was excellent, stopping 34 of 35. We kind of thought, coming into this tournament, that if Finland was going to have a shot to pull off some upsets, Saros would have to be their best player. He was today.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, again, I think there’s no disguising that. When we talked about this team, we broke down where they’re at, we knew they’d have to play a grittier game than we saw in the first game against Slovakia, and I think they did that, and Juuse Saros was the MVP of this game. I saw a great clip of Team Sweden walking out and it was like, ‘Name something good about Finland,’ and most guys were like, ‘No, no, no,’ so you can imagine the pride that they felt last night.

As I pull up the Daily Faceoff line combos, which kind of gets me through the Olympics here, being able to find these combos, because it’s such a great resource to have … Anton Lundell, in that third-line centre spot, I thought was a huge difference-maker today for this team. He scores a huge goal and he makes a huge defensive play with about nine or so minutes left in the third period, where a puck gets over Saros and it’s bound for the back of the net. He pulls it off the goal line, keeps it out, and from there, they were able to lock it down. Again, I think this was a great team effort. Yes, your goalie kind of overshadows it with 34 saves on 35 shots, but that being said, this is a shot in the arm for Team Finland.

Watch the full episode here.