Karelian Tournament: Lions–Czech Republic

Finland–Czech Republic 4–0 (2–0, 1–0, 1–0)

Thursday In the opening match of the Karelian tournament, Leijonat, who defeated Switzerland in overtime, continued their tournament on Saturday night against the reigning world champion, the Czech Republic.

The match was a handsome display from Leijon, which ended with a 4–0 victory on the scoreboard.

The player who scored two goals distinguished himself as the most effective player of the Lions Harri Pesonen. However, the goalkeeper who kept a clean sheet with 34 saves was awarded as the best in Finland Emil Larmi.

Lions got the match off to a great start when Pesonen scored a 1-0 goal after barely five minutes of play.

The Lions’ new head coach Antti Pennanen based on the first impression, the team’s play has led to a more greedy hair-raising game than before, and especially the attacking end’s puck possession. In Pesonen’s opening goal, this effort bore fruit.

The second pier of the pesone and triple chain Kristian Vesalainen put a lot of pressure on the Czechs at the offensive end, got the puck out and Pesonen was able to shake it immediately into the goal.

At the end of the opening set, Leijonat doubled their lead when Toni Rajala ran through and shot the puck irresistibly past the Ilves goalkeeper Jakub Malekin.

Rajala’s 2–0 goal was scored in 19:36.

On Saturday a clearly larger audience (7,114) had arrived in the hall than in Thursday’s Switzerland game.

Leijonat offered the home crowd a treat with all the money. The second set wasn’t even halfway through yet, when Pesonen scored his second of the night to give Finland a 3–0 lead.

At this point, the dome of the Czechs began to boil in the puddles of Nordenkiöldikatu. KalPan Mathias Kantner broke down Ahti from Oksa ugly from the back to the neck and flew out of the match at 5+20 minutes at 31:20.

After this, emotions ran hot during the rest of the set after almost every situation.

Lions didn’t lift his foot off the gas in the final either. Arttu Ruotsalainen scored the 4-0 goal that finally decided the match right at the beginning of the set.

After that, the rest was more or less playing, and the Lions got to celebrate an exceptionally high-goal victory over the reigning world champions.

Lions ends the Karelia tournament on Sunday with a match against Sweden starting at 5 p.m.