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As the other medal favorites crush their opponents, the Junior Lions continue to push for wins by a smaller margin. On Sunday night, Finland expected to fall to Switzerland, but the victory numbers were written only 4-1.
After a somewhat modest debut against Germany, many expected the Junior Lions to have sharpened their claws in the group stage of Game 2 on Sunday night.
This time, the blue and white squad turned out to be clearly better, only the posts kept Switzerland at a powerful distance.
Initially, however, it seemed to go wrong.
The first Finnish chain with Anton Lundell, Kasper Simontaival and Roni Hirvonen was at the forefront from the beginning and managed to create dangers in the offensive zone, but still it was the Swiss who took advantage of their first attempt at numerical superiority.
Attilio Biasca deposited the puck in just under four minutes into the match and, at the same time, represented the Swiss’s first full blow in the tournament.
Fast receipt
The receipt was not long in coming. Simontaival won the puck in the offensive zone and Finland got a free 3v1 position. Anton Lundell was the first to pass and made it 1-1 just over half a minute after the backhand goal.
– The puck bounced a bit and we managed to turn around quickly. I put the puck into goal when I saw both Lundell and Hirvonen driving straight into the box. I thought one of them had to squeeze it, Simontaival explained in the Dplay interview during the break.
After the full hit, the game started to work clearly better. The junior lion hit the shots in dangerous situations in several repetitions, but the puck hit Swiss goalkeeper Thibault Fatton or the crossbar.
– The result could have been very different considering the number of situations we created in 5v5, sums up head coach Antti Pennanen.
In the end, it turned out to be an effective power play, which was the recipe for Finland’s victory.
Focus on the power play
Juuso Pärssinen made it 2-1 after a fantastic solo foray in the second. Aku Räty failed at 3-1 and Simontaival had to round the winning numbers to 4-1 in the closing minutes of the match, all outnumbered.
– We focus on the training game in Germany’s post-match training, reveals Simontaival at the post-match press conference.
– It was good that the first line of powerplay also got a goal. But we get a lot of expulsions, even stupid, says coach Pennanen.
In addition to the scorer in the power play, the first-string effort at five-on-five was something Pennanen had every reason to be happy with.
The Lundell-Hirvonen-Simontaival trio together accounted for two of the goals, scoring a total of 13 of Finland’s 43 shots on target, and then not even counting, among other things, a rib strike from Lundell and Hirvonen’s failure with an empty goal in front of him.
– We could have contributed even more, says team captain Lundell in the television interview.
– We have very good chemistry on the ice right now. We are on the ice and today it was clear. It feels great to play with the boys. But it has required a lot of hard work on our part, I cannot stress that enough, compares Simontaival.
It is not clear if Blomqvist will be able to play
After Kari Piiroinen started for Finland in the debut against Germany, on Sunday night it was Roope Taponen’s turn to take over as goalkeeper. The result was 13 saves in 14 attempts.
Joel Blomqvist once again had to settle for following the game from the stands. After the game, Pennanen declined to reveal his plans for goalkeepers.
– Time will tell. We have good goalkeepers in the team who have played well so now we have to sit down and think about how we progress. There is some plan, I can reveal it. But we sleep on the matter and are allowed to go back, says Pennanen.
The tournament continues on Wednesday night for Finland. The junior lion then faces Slovakia in a match that starts at 9:00 PM in Finland.
Results:
Finland 4–1 Switzerland (1–1, 1–0, 2–0)
3.44 Attilio Biasca (Raymond Fust, Dario Allenspach) 0–1 pp.
4.20 Anton Lundell (Kasper Simontaival) 1–1
24.53 Juuso Pärssinen (Topi Niemelä, Brad Lambert) 2–1 pp.
50.41 Aku Räty (Brad Lambert, Topi Niemelä) 3–1 pp.
56.49 Kasper Simontaival (Roni Hirvonen, Anton Lundell) 4–1 pp.
Subsequently: Slovakia – Canada, Czech Republic – Russia
