Finland stood atop the men's hockey mountain Sunday in Beijing, Olympic gold medalists following a 2-1 win over the Russian Olympic Committee.

The Finns did not lose one of their six games in the tournament. And their victory not only earned the country its first gold medal in that sport, but it also announced to the world what those paying close attention already knew: Finland is primed to assert its dominance over the sport.

From 2010 to 2020, the country saw a rise in registered hockey players to 65,469, per Statista.

There are 50 Finns in the NHL, the exact same number of Russians suiting up in the league.

Not all that long ago, the idea that there would be that many Finnish players in the top league in the sport would have been astonishing.