Finland rolled over Sweden in the last quarter
Finland crushed its Scandinavian rival from Sweden in the last quarter of their opening game of World championship in CEZ ARENA, scoring six unanswered goals. The game was very even for long periods with Sweden being in the lead more often, but a flurry of Finnish goals late in the game turned the score in Finland´s favour. Markus Jokinen was a Finnish hero with a hat-trick.
| Game no. 4 • aB1 • Sun 19/6/2011 • 16:00 • Schedule and results | ||
|---|---|---|
Sweden |
4:10 |  Finland |
| (1:1, 2:1, 1:2, 0:6) | ||
| Idoff (Sparring) - Svensson, Brolin, Nilsson, Olsson - Torgersson, Bejmo, Luukkonen, Berglund - Lilja, Myren, Djerf, Hoglund - Thellberg. | Karhu (Airasvaara) - Lappalainen, Aalto, Jokinen, Joki-Erkkila - Saarinen, Markkanen, Palotie, Lohtander - Kauppinen, Laaksonen, Ahosilta, Vuori - Nieminen, Lehtonen. | |
| Goals and assists: 2. Luukkonen (Bejmo), 17. Myren (Brolin, Luukkonen), 22. Luukkonen (Bejmo), 36. Olsson - 12. Kauppinen (Markkanen), 21. Saarinen (Lohtander, Markkanen), 30. Jokinen, 33. Saarinen (Joki-Erkkila), 38. Jokinen, 40. Markkanen (Ahosilta, Laaksonen), 41. Palotie (Laaksonen), 43. Markkanen (Kauppinen), 44. Aalto (Ahosilta), 46. Jokinen (Saarinen) | ||
| Shots: 29:34
(8:11, 5:8, 8:7, 8:9).
Penalties: 5:3.
PP goals: 1:3.
SH goals: 0:2. Refferees: Friday (USA), Prchal (CZE) . Audience: 350. |
||
 Live coverage on onlajny.cz | ||
Game report
Sweden enjoyed a strong start to the game and went ahead after 102 seconds thanks to Kristian Luukkonen´s close range shot. Tre Kronor were the better team for long periods in the opening quarter, but conceded in the very last minute due to Tobias Kauppinen´s slapshot from the slot.
Second period started with another Swedish goal, this time thanks to Anders Myren´s power play rebound. Finland equalized on a power play, as well. Jesse Saarinen´s slapshot flew right under the crossbar. However, Swedes were quickly back in front after a quick combination finished by Kristian Luukkonen.
Road to a comeback seemed to be long and twisty for the Finns early in the third quarter as they struggled to keep the puck. Sweden could not capitalize, though, and they paid the ultimate price when Markus Jokinen´s slapshot was too good for Idoff in Swedish goal. Shortly afterwards, Finns turned the lead on their side for the first time thanks to another power play goal by Jesse Saarinen. With 10 seconds to go in the third quarter, Simon Olsson´s individual effort brought Swedish equalizer.
With a 4-4 score after 36 minutes, nobody expected the Finnish storm that was about to come in the last period. "We stopped skating and playing like a team. Finland scored some very cheap goals in the end," explained Daniel Brolin of Team Sweden." It all started with Markus Jokinen´s beautiful shorthanded goal early in the quarter, followed by a brace from Sami Markkanen and other goals by Mikko Palotie, Jouni Aalto and a third hat-trick goal from Markus Jokinen. "The beginning of the game was very difficult for us, but a lucky shorthanded goal helped us and we turned the game around," said Jokinen.
Author: Lukas Peroutka
Game reactions
Fredrik Skoog (Team Sweden coach): We started well, but then we lost our heads. Finland scored two quick goals and we fell apart, had a couple of penalties and could not score. We will have to follow our tactics better tomorrow, because Germans have a team with good quality.
Nemo Nokkosmaki (Team Finland coach): I could not be happy with our performance in the early part of the game. But then we improved and I believe we will continue to improve even further during the tournament. We should remember that we have seven rookies on the team. We believed our system and that helpes us to a win.
