Finland lost in the under-20 World Cup for the first time. The Czech Republic was better with numbers 2–1. The solution came in overtime.
Petteri Rimpinen was heavily employed in the Czech game. PDO
The Young Lions went to the Czech Republic game after two big victories. Finland beat Denmark 6–2 and Latvia by as much as 8–0.
The team scored no fewer than 14 goals in the first two games of the tournament and had successes on a wide range of fronts.
The Czech Republic is a team of a different level, it has 16 players playing in North American leagues.
The game started rough for Finland, when Veeti Väisänen hit the opponent in the jaw with a cross stick. Väisänen received a 5+20 minute penalty and left through the big doors to the shower side.
The Czech Republic took a 1-0 lead with superiority, the scorer was Matej Kubiesa.
Despite the goal, Finland played well underpowered.
Equalize
Kasper Pikkarainen confused and twisted the whole game against the Czech Republic. AOP / TIIA MAHKONEN
No goals were scored by Nuoret Leijonat in the first two periods.
– A bit like how things are done, but then none of the agreed things are done. Just like the gold itself, a certain kind of clarity was missing in that playing, Aron Kiviharju said.
In the end it was a mess
Emil Hemming took the game to overtime. AOP / TIIA MAHKONEN
Finland played a strong final set and leveled the game tremendously when there were only 19.3 seconds of actual game time left. Emil Hemming was the scorer Leo Tuuvan for a great passport.
In overtime, Adam Jiricek scored the winning goal Petteri Rimpinen behind the back.
– Their kit was able to swim in the middle of it. I tried to push and I was quite close to hitting it. But it was a great performance.
– Let’s take the overtime wins in the right places, Rimpinen cheered and was satisfied with one point.
On Tuesday, Finland has a break from matches. The team’s preliminary series culminates on the last day of the year when it faces Canada.
The match starts on January 1 at 3:30 Finnish time.
TV5 will show the match.