Finland lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the Ice Hockey World Cup with 1–2 goals.
Finland the under-18 national ice hockey team’s competitions ended in Espoo.
The Little Lions lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals with 1-2 goals after an evenly matched performance. Finland ended its tournament with heads down. Sweden advanced to the medal games played over the weekend.
“There were all sorts of possibilities, but the games are all about the little ones. This time Sweden won. Maybe they entered the game better. We were too soft. I should have played better, I don’t know”, Finland’s number one star Konsta Helenius told TV5.
Finland missed out on a medal in the age group World Cup competitions also a year ago, when Slovakia was better in the quarterfinals with 3–2 goals.
Defenders from that team Aron Kiviharju, Veeti Väisänen and Mitja Jokinen and forward Konsta Helenius were still involved and experiencing a second consecutive quarter-final loss.
Sweden started the match like the United States on May Day in the final game of the preliminary series and unleashed attacks on Finland’s goal. The Little Lions were in trouble, but surrendered eight times against the United States Petteri Rimpinen made a few important saves.
Defender Alphonse Freij scored a 1–0 lead for Sweden through the crowd of players.
The Little Lions became active as the set progressed and created a number of first-team chances Joona Saarelainen–Konsta Helenius–Emil Hemming under.
In the second set, the first chain ran its superiority game ineffectively. The second chain underlined the sufficient depth in the Finnish team and showed a model of scoring when Heikki Ruohonen crushed at the end of the counterattack to equalize 1–1.
After this, Finland endured an underpowered game and created a few chances for Sweden’s goal in a draw.
Finland the players already emphasized after the final match against the United States that there should be no mistakes in the quarterfinals.
A few minutes before the end of the second period, the defender Daniel Nieminen lost the puck. Sweden got pressure on Finland’s territory, and Jack Berglund scored the lead goal for Sweden.
In the final set, Finland failed to break Sweden’s tight pack, even though they had a chance to try despite being outnumbered.
“The trip ended with a game like this, we woke up only in the second set. Everyone gave up on the rink today, luck wasn’t there in the finish line. Disappointing, of course,” assessed the coach Marko Kauppinen.
“You lose with a goal like that, the puck goes through our Pak. Hard to take. You have to look at the result honestly and, of course, thank you for the trip.”
In the quarter-final match, Finland had few goal posts.