Finland took the second place after a win over Sweden

Finland played for the second place in the tournament, which could be secured by a win in the last game. Whole stadium stood behind the home team and a massive support began to express quickly. Already in the fourth minute, Sakari Salminen found the back of the Swedish net with a precise shot after a great crossing pass from Mikko Koivu.

The Finnish pressure was growing even after the opening goal, but Wesslau was ready against the efforts of Tuppurainen and Pihlström. Both players had another great chance in the eleventh minute, when Pihlström hit the top bar and Tuppurainen followed with a rebound. However, Wesslau managed to held it out of the goal.

Pekka Rinne returned into the home team goal crease after one match break and first difficult moments came in the end of the first period, when his teammates played shorthanded. However, the chances of Landeskog and Mårtensson didn’t bring the equalizer.

Enlund had a chance to score right after the break, but it looked like he was surprised himself with the opportunity in front of the open goal, since he didn’t even hit the puck. Both teams then played a powerplay, but none of them took advantage of it.

However, Sweden managed to score the equalizer. After they resisted another powerplay of their opponent, Carl Söderberg found the puck on the goal line after Wesslau’s save and tapped it into the goal. Few minutes later, Thörnberg could complete the turnover as he got into a breakaway while shorthanded, but he lost the puck just in front of Rinne and didn’t even finish.

The Swedish then payed with another conceded goal for a bad discipline, when Petteri Nummelin found his spot on the circles and sent a shot towards the away goal. However, he wasn’t chosen as a goal scorer, because his effort was deflected by Jonas Enlund and then hit the net behind Wesslau.

First bigger opportunity of the final period came from the stick of Landeskog, who hit the puck precisely into the top corner of the Rinne’s goal. Nevertheless, the Finnish goaltender was quick enough to stop the puck with his glove.

Sweden got a good chance to equalize in a powerplay and they pressed the home team really hard, but Pettersson only hit the post and the following Thörnberg‘s rebound was stopped with a fantastic save performed by Pekka Rinne. The referee asked the video-judge for help, but the goal wasn’t given.

In the end, Finland played another powerplay and scored the third one with a precise shot by Juha-Pekka Haataja. It all looked decided when Salminen skated towards the empty net, but the Finnish goal scorer wasn’t able to simply put the puck into the net. Nevertheless, Finland reached another victory and second place in total.

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