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In a back-and-forth game that saw both teams bring out the offence, Finland opened the Trenčín Group with a 9-6 upset win over Canada. Canada built up a 3-1 first-period lead, the Finns replied with four straight goals, Canada got two back to tie it but the Finns ran away with it from there. Finland went 3-for-5 on the power play while Canada was 1-for-1. Tuomas Suoniemi led the Finnish offence with three goals and two assists, while Emil Hemming had a goal and three assists. Berkly Catton led Canada with a goal and two assists.
Penalties: 6:2. PP goals: 1:3. SH goals: 0:0.
Referees: Hronský, Stano – Synek, Durmis. Attendance: 1011.
Report
Canada started quickly with a goal just 10 seconds in, with Cole Beaudoin deflecting Frankie Morelli’s long shot downwards and through Kim Saarinen’s legs. Julius Miettinen tied it for Finland on the power play but Canada scored twice more to build up a 3-1 lead. First it was Maxim Massé on the rush, and then Justin Poirier beat Saarinen from a bad angle on the short side.
With 2:38 to go in the opening frame, Finland got one back. With the teams playing 4-on-4, Emil Hemming shot the puck right off the faceoff in the Canadian zone and it was in the net two seconds later.
Finland then scored twice in the first minute of the second period to take the lead. Tuomas Suomieni converted a pass from Hemming for his first of the game, and then 20 second later Artu Välilä got to a loose puck in the crease after Gabriel D’Aigle made the initial save.
Daniel Nieminen put Finland up 5-3 with the team’s second power-play marker of the game, but Berkly Catton converted on Canada’s lone power play of the game exactly one minute later.
In the first minute of the third period, Henry Mews drew Canada back even. The scored stayed 5-5 for a while, but Finland broke out with four goals in a span of 3:07 to break the game back open.
Joona Soorelainen broke the tie with 8:09 to go when he outmuscled a Canadian defenceman for the puck in front of the net and then beat D’Aigle with a nifty move. And then just over a minute later it was 7-5 when Suomeli scored his second of the game, carrying the puck into the Canadian zone and beating D’Aigle with a high backhand.
At that point, D’Aigle was lifted in favour of Carter George, but Finland scored twice more to make it 9-5. First, Akseli Pulkkanen was left alone in front, took a pass from Hemming and beat George on the backhand. Then Suoniemi completed his hat trick with a wrist shot from the faceoff dot for Finland’s third power-play goal of the game.
Roger McQueen got a late goal for the Canadians, who came no closer.
Reactions
Marko Kauppinen (head coach, Team Finland): “There was a lot going on, a lot of goals, which was probably fun for the fans in the stands, but for the coaches on the benches … Six goals against, you always think about what you could do better on defence. But nine goals, you can be happy about that. We believe in our system and what we’re doing. We weren’t so good in the first 10 minutes, we didn’t use our sticks so well and gave them too much space. Then a couple of things happened which made the guys on our bench believe that we could beat that team if we do the right things.”
Asked about Suonemi: “He’s shown that he can score points and today I was so happy with how he did the work on defence and offence. He’s got some skills that I can’t even teach him.”