Finland’s performance was excellent. The players could not answer whether the Czech Republic was at the bottom of the gas.
With the defeat of Finland, the Czech Republic will win against Germany in the semi-finals. With a win on Tuesday, Thursday, the team would have faced Canada. Jussi Saarinen
The lion was known exactly before Tuesday’s Czech game, which means any opponent in Thursday’s semi-finals.
– It was known that a straight win will be a block win and against Slovakia. We started to pick it up, he commented Teemu Hartikainen.
It told the setup: No one wanted Canada against the quarterfinals.
It was guaranteed in the Czech camp that a win on Tuesday would be a worse outcome for the semi-finals than a win. Germany loses, Canada wins.
The big question in the Nokia arena was, was the Czech Republic intentionally lost?
– I felt like it was a full-blooded hockey match. Rigging, passion and decent play. At least it didn’t feel like they were in the half lights, Hartikainen estimates.
It seemed that the Czech Republic did not play intentionally very badly.
– We played really well. Were we so good that they didn’t get to the core? When we were so good, it was so hard to say if they were on the side of the gas on the ice, Toni Rajala estimates.
Iltalehti’s hockey expert Annina Rajahuhta says that intentional extinction is not part of the species’ codebook.
– I didn’t notice anything like that on Tuesday, Rajahuhta says.
– It said they had Marek Langhamer in the finish, but there was a logical explanation for that as well. Karel Vejmelka played on Monday and is likely to continue to score, Rajahuhta says, adding that the Czech Republic did not crash into the game on Tuesday.
Finland won 3–0 on Tuesday. Teemu Hartikainen (left), Sakari Manninen and Jere Sallinen air the second hit of the Lions. Jussi Saarinen