We have to move on and put the loss behind us, says Lassila

A newly-built and very young team based mainly on players from SM-Liiga and KHL fought to periods very hard in front of the sold-out Khodynka Arena, however Russians prevailed. The only player on the Finnish team, who has the gold medal from the Bratislava 2011, a goalie Teemu Lassila, could not stop three Russian shots.

"We have to move on and stop thinking about this loss. It is not good we lost our first game, but I am convinced our play will move higher in our next games," said Lassila.

Finns did not play bad; they were tough opponents to the Russians for most of the first two periods. However, they could not score on their chances. "In the 1st period perhaps, we have three, maybe four chances to score and team Russia had got just one, very strange first goal. I got little bit my part on the 2nd goal. I feel like I could have saved it. However, on the other hand, we had some moments there, which were positive. When we don't shoot a goal, we cannot win this game," he added.

The Russian team did not surprise Finns with their performance. "They played with their typical style of hockey. Russia has always a good team," said Lassila, who started his career in Turku.

He is one of the most experienced players on the team. "I try to help the other guys. I communicate a lot especially with the youngsters, but we all are professionals, so I do not need to talk that much (smile). We focus on playing as a team."

Finland will try to recover on Saturday in the game against the Czech Republic. "We have to get ready for it. We will talk a lot about it on tomorrow's practice and I am sure our only goal will be to win it," added Teemu Lassila.

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