EHT: Finland thrashes Czech Republic

Finland have had problems scoring this season but after scoring just 13 goals in seven EHT games they scored seven goals in the game against Czech Republic today.

However it was the Czechs that started the game best and had some good chances to take the lead but Niko Hovinen did a good job keeping his net clean. The Czechs got a great chance to take the lead when Jaakola was sent of for high sticking but instead Leo Komarev went on a counter attack and made it 1-0 for Finland at 9:55.


Finland just made it 1-0 by Komarev (Photo: Ann-Louise Söderberg)

After that the Czech team collapsed. Finland added a second goal two and half minutes later when Aaltonen and Lindgren set up a quick counter attack and Janne Pesonen couldn't miss the open net for 2-0. With just one minute to go, Juhamatti Aaltonen made it 3-0 when he unattacked could step in front of goal and beat Pöpperle with a hard and high shot.

Even if the first period had been pretty even Finland had 3-0 after 11-10 in shots on goal.


Niko Hovinen made 18 saves for the shutout. (Photo: Roman Kucera)

"The first period was even and both teams had chances, still we had the lead 3-0. They lost their self confidence after that", Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen said after the game. "We had more quality shots than them and crashed harder on the net and we also had some luck".

Tomas Rolinek the Czech team captain was disappointed after the game and said "It is hard to comment it when you lose 0-7. Of course, it looks like an awful debacle, but there were some good moments there. It did not look that bad in the first period, but they went into a breakaway and scored twice, then they added one more.I do not remember such a game in the past. Right after the game we said we will not discuss about this game anymore at all. Tomorrow there is a new game against Russia and we have to show a different hockey."

In the second period Janne Lahti made it 4-0 at 11:19 with a low shot at the far post. After that Finland had complete control of the game and had several chances for 5-0. Leo Komarov got the chance on a penalty shot but hit the bar.

But 5-0 came, in the last minute of the second period when Petri Kontiola scored. The referees didn't see the goal at first but the goal was allowed after a video review 17 seconds later.


Janne Lahti shoots 4-0 (Photo: Ann-Louise Söderberg)

At the start of the third period it seemed like the Czech team would collapse completly  when Finland was allowed to score two goals within the first thirty seconds of the third period. The goals were scored by Niskala and Pesonen.

The 6-0 scorer Janne Niskala said after the game "We have a good team with a good mix of young and experienced players. After 3-0 in the first period we said we would continue on the same way and it worked out well".

But the Czechs took a time out and managed to aviod a complete disaster in the third period by not allowing anymore goals.During the last two minutes of the game a couple of thousand Finnish fans who created a good atmosphere during the game gave their team standing ovations.

 

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