Canada recovers from Finland’s big start

On Friday night in Helsinki, Finland and Canada were both given their first real tests in these World Championships when they played against each other. 

Canada had played at half-speed in most of their games until this one, but today they showed some character and that they can play when it matters. They opened the game in a very Canadian style; hard checks, aggressive forechecking and going hard to the net. However, Finland answered with same style and opening half of the period was very attractive hard hitting action. 

Canada controlled the first few minutes, but with great support from their sold-out home crowd, Finland got back on track quickly. Finland's top line of Valtteri Filppula, Mikko Koivu and Jussi Jokinen was especially hot. The first goal came when Canada's Kyle Quincey had the puck taken away by Niko Kapanen in the neutral zone. Kapanen passed to Antti Pihlström, who scored on a great backhander. Hartwall Arena erupted. 

After that, Finland pressured hard and next the mistake that Quincey made was that he got angry at Leo Komarov and took an undisciplined slashing penalty. Shortly after that, Dion Phaneuf got frustrated with Janne Pesonen and took another penalty for slashing. Finland didn't let this five-on-three power play go to waste, as Mikko Koivu scored on rebound after a period of sustained pressure. Canadian coach Brent Sutter then took his timeout. 

"I had to settle our guys down," said Sutter of his decision. "We took three bad penalties and we had to take control of our emotions."  

Brent Sutter

The second period started much slower and more carefully than the first one, as if Finland was waiting to see how Canada would react to the bad first period. 

After some five minutes, the Finnish defensive pair of Topi Jaakola and Lasse Kukkonen had some bad communication, which allowed Alexandre Burrows come form behind the goal and easily score Canada's first one. 

Only a minute later, just when Canada had a good hold on the game, Carolina Hurricanes youngster Jeff Skinner took an ill-timed elbowing penalty. The best way to punish a dumb penalty is to score a goal and that was what Finland did. Anssi Salmela made a marvelous pass from the blueline and Jussi Jokinen one-timed it into the goal. 

A couple of minutes later, Corey Perry took a penalty, but despite several good chances, Finland couldn't increase their lead. Over the next 14 minutes Finland had great chances to maybe put the game away with their fourth goal, but in all their enthusiasm they forgot to never underestimate Canada. Juuso Hietanen took himself out of position when trying to reach the puck at the blueline and Skinner and John Tavares escaped two-on-one, which Tavares finished by scoring on Skinner's nice feed. 

And there was more to come. Skinner made up for his stupid penalty with a beautiful wrap-around goal with a couple of minutes left in the middle frame. Finland was now totally frozen and seemed to fear Canada taking control. 

In third period Canada, continued where it left off at the end of second. They came on really hard and Finland just couldn't get their game in balance anymore. After six minutes, Canada did the inevitable and silenced the sold-out Hartwall Arena. Corey Perry shot from close range and Evander Kane deflected the puck in. A few seconds earlier Finland had hit the post at the other end. The full house was waiting for Finland to start its final push but it actually never came. Canada had a good hold on the game and were closer to scoring more goals than Finland was to equalizing.

"We started the game excellent and had many good scoring chances," said Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen. "Later on, we somehow quit attacking and only defended. That way you can't beat Canada. Also, it seemed that some of our players badly lost their confidence."

Finland had in the game's early stages many chances to score more goals but didn't. Canada concentrated at the beginning in everything else but disciplined hockey, but Finland just couldn't put away the game. Instead, they let Canada in the game and couldn't really challenge them anymore. For Finland it was quite concerning how completely their game collapsed when another team got the lead. 

On the other hand, "This was only one game and we have to take this as a lesson," concluded Jalonen at the press conference.

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