Finland squeaks by Latvia
BRATISLAVA – Finland and Latvia couldn't score on each other on 5-on-5 play. Both teams scored two power play goals and in the end, Finland took a 3-2 win after a game winning shot competition.
Latvia - Finland 3-2 (0-1, 1-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Finland's Mikael Granlund and Jarkko Immonen collected two points each, Latvia's goaltender Edgars Masalskis made 26 saves in regulation time.
In the last five tournaments, Latvia has gone to the quarterfinal once, Finland had one silver, two bronze medals, and one quarterfinal losses. In their four previous World Championship games against Finland, Latvia had scored only one goal, in Halifax, in 2008. Even then, they lost the game 2-1. There was never a question of which team would take the initiatives, and which one would try to defend and wait for the other team’s mistake.
Just to be clear: Finland was the favorite.
Latvia also gave Finland the keys to the game when they took two penalties in the first period. Latvia managed to kill off the first one, Girts Ankipans’s hooking minor, but when Herberts Vasiljevs took a slashing penalty at 12:20, Finland got to work. Mikael Granlund had set up an scoring chance during the first power play sending a long pass to the top of the circle but Jarkko Immonen’s onetimer missed the net.
This time, Granlund played the puck quickly from the corner to Jyrki Välivaara on the blueline. The defenceman took a few steps in, and sent a hard pass to the other side and Jarkko Immonen deflected the puck past Edgars Masalskis to give Finland 1-0 lead.
Finland outshot Latvia 10-6 in the first period, but half of Latvia’s shots came from a lone forward on a rush, from the blueline. Team Finland controlled the puck most of the period, and after the go-ahead goal on power play, the team played with even more confidence.
But. One lost faceoff and a lot of traffic in front of the net can make a difference. That’s what happened 13:54 into the second period when Finland was playing shorthanded. Andris Dzerins won the faceoff in Finland’s zone, Andris Redlihs grabbed the loose puck, sent it to Krisjanis Redlihs on the blueline, and his slapshot beat Teemu Lassila in Finland’s goal to tie the game.
Vasiljevs was in the penaty box when Finland scored their first goal, but he made up for it, by scoring the 2-1 goal on power play. Georgijs Pujacs’s slapshot bounced to the front of the net off the boards, hit Martins Cipulis and eneded up in Finland’s Lasse Kukkonen’s feet. Vasiljevs demonstrated his quick hands and beat Lassila with a backhander just 2:12 into the third period.
With 8:21 remaining, Finland got another power play opportunity during which Granlund, Immonen, and Niko Kapanen created several scoring chances, and finally managed to beat Masalskis. Granlund flipped a backhanded saucer to Immonen in the slot. He sent the puck straight to Kapanen who had a fairly easy job to send the puck to the back of the net at 12:51.
The rest of the period was a battle. Finland pushed Latvia to their heels, desperate for the winning goal, but Masalskis held his ground to the end of regulation time.
Penalty shots:
Finland, Immonen: goal
Latvia, Nizivijs: no goal
Finland, Koivu: goal
Latvia, Darzins, no goal
