Finland scored three first-period goals in less than four minutes and never looked back in an 11-0 romp over host Italy to wrap up Group B on Saturday.

The Finns finish second in the group, behind Slovakia and ahead of Sweden. It is based on goal difference in head-to-head competition between the three teams, all of whom have six points.

"This was probably the only lopsided game I didn't feel bad about just because of the goal difference," said superstar Mikko Rantanen, who had three assists. "We knew that the goal difference is important because Slovakia won the group. I knew how much that matters for the second place to get the bye to quarter-finals."

Under coach Antti Pennanen, the defending Olympic champs have two straight wins after downing Nordic rival Sweden 4-1 on Friday. It was well-organized two-way hockey versus overmatched Italy as shots favoured Finland 62-15. The Finns scored twice with the man advantage and took zero penalties.

Italy coach Jukka Jalonen, who led Finland to its first Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2022, was unable to guide the underdog Italians to an upset over his native country. The Azzurri looked out of gas after battling hard in losses to Sweden (5-2) and Slovakia (3-2).

"It’s not a great feeling," said Italian blueliner Dylan di Perna. "Obviously, they're a good team, so a lot of respect to them. I think we're better than what we showed tonight, but fatigue sets in pretty quickly. So the game gets harder and harder as it goes on."

Kaapo Kakko stepped up with two goals and an assist. Artturi Lehkonen added a goal and two assists. Mikael Granlund, Sebastian Aho, and Joel Kiviranta each had a pair. Miro Heiskanen and Joel Armia both had a goal and an assist. Erik Haula, Rasmus Ristolainen and Eetu Luostarinen each had two assists.

Suomi peppered Italian netminder Damien Clara, who was replaced by Davide Fadani to start the third period. Italy has used both its goalies in all three of its games so far in Milan. Finnish starter Juuse Saros had a quieter evening en route to his first Olympic shutout.

Aho opened the scoring on Finland’s sixth shot at 6:49. From below the Italian goal line, Lehkonen found Rantanen out front and he handed it to Aho for a back-door tap-in.

At 9:31, Granlund made it 2-0 on the power play, as his attempted cross-crease pass to Aho hit an Italian defender’s stick and went between Clara’s legs.

Less than a minute later, Kakko scored high to the stick side for a 3-0 lead.

The second period saw Finland in relentless mode, outshooting Italy 25-6. At 4:06, Kiviranta tipped Nikko Mikkola's point shot through the Italian goalie.

Set up by Luostarinen, an unattended Kakko fired home a laser at 7:39 to make it 5-0.

Nearing the end of the second period, Italy nearly capitalized on a shorthanded break, but Saros stoned Luca Frigo from the slot. Eeli Tolvanen appeared to have added to Finland's lead, but Italy challenged the play for offside and the goal was overturned.

Not that it would matter. At 17:36, Kakko set up Granlund on the rush for a 6-0 goal that counted.

"It’s never fun when a game runs away like this," said Granlund. "But we needed to score a lot of goals today, and we did that, so that’s good."

Heiskanen gave Fadani a rude welcome to the Italian net at 1:01 of the third period, scoring on a power play point shot. At 1:34, Lehkonen tallied from the slot to put Finland up 8-0.

Aho potted his second goal just over two minutes later, and Armia made it 10-0 right off an offensive-zone faceoff at 13:26. Kiviranta rounded out the scoring with 2:47 left.

"It was good to get everybody on the board," said Armia. "I think we just played the right way. That was the most important thing for us tonight."

Finnish forward Anton Lundell sat out this game as Pennanen rested the two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Florida Panthers ahead of the qualification playoffs.