Finland is playing for medals in the under-20 World Championships. The USA fell 4-3 in a highly exciting quarter-final. Arttu Väilä is a Finnish hero.
Rauma Luko’s Arttu Väliilä is Finland’s newest puck hero. TIIA MAHKONEN / AOP
In the quarterfinals, the Young Lions faced the United States, which was the world champion in this age group the last two years.
Finland won the match in overtime with numbers 4–3 and will happily play for medals in the tournament in Minnesota.
The home team USA started the scoring when the team’s star pack Cole Hutson passed Petteri Rimpinen.
Heikki Ruohonen tied the game, but Cole Eiserman gave the Yankees a 2–1 lead in the second inning.
Solution in the third
Petteri Rimpinen has played all of Finland’s matches in the World Cup so far. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
At the beginning of the final set, Emil Hemming hit the post hard, but the puck bounced out. Nuoret Leijonat also had a good advantage, but the goal just didn’t come.
The deciding set was strong Finnish control. The United States had to defend for long periods.
In the end, in 52.43, Leo Tuuva brought Finland level from Aron Kiviharju’s pass.
Just 55 seconds later, Nuoret Leijonat took a 3–2 lead. The goal was scored by Joona Saarelainen from the passes of Tuuva and Lasse Boelius.
Ryker Lee leveled the thriller with 1:32 left and the winner was called for overtime.
Fell asleep sometimes
Heikki Ruohonen scored one of Finland’s goals in the quarterfinals against the United States. AOP / TIIA MAHKONEN
Arttu Väilä scored a historic winning goal.
– It doesn’t matter who scores these goals. It just happened to come to me. Of course it felt good, the hero cheered.
Tuuva scored 1+1 points.
– There was a lot of tension in it a couple of minutes before the end when the guy leveled up. It was a bit sad when it went to overtime.
Finally, Tuuva’s voice came out.
– There was a bit of shouting in that winning goal. The voice left, Luko’s man admitted.
Finland is again playing for World Cup medals.
– Well, it’s really great, it doesn’t get any better than that. This was our goal.