Team Finland beat Slovaks players after a great drama
The game between Finland and Slovakia was not an attractive one for about 46 minutes. But in the final two minutes of regulation time, things really got interesting and ČEZ Arena saw a great drama. The end was better for the Finnish players, who won in a shoot-out. With the loss, Team Slovakia comes down from the elite group.
| Game no. 36 • aP5 • Fri 24/6/2011 • 16:00 • Schedule and results | ||
|---|---|---|
Finland |
5:4so |  Slovakia |
| (0:1, 0:0, 2:0, 2:3 - 0:0) | ||
| Airasvaara (Karhu) - Aalto, Lappalainen, Markkanen, Saarinen, Laaksonen, Kauppinen, Nieminen - Jokinen, Joki-Erkkila, Palotie, Lohtander, Ahosilta, Vuori, Lehtonen. | Hrusovsky (Ondrejka) - Priechodsky, Cunderlik, Strapaty, J. Ruckaj, Galik, Klucar - Novajovsky, H. Ruckay, Ertel, Novak, Holovic, Kristin. | |
| Goals and assists: 26. Markkanen (Lohtander), 28. Markkanen (Lohtander, Saarinen), 38. Markkanen (Lohtander), 48. Lohtander (Saarinen, Markkanen), rozhodujici najezd Markkanen – 9. Kristin (Novak), 37. Novak (Holovic), 40. Priechodsky, 48. Novak (Holovic). | ||
| Shots: 40:26
(0:0, 0:0, 0:0, 0:0 - 0:0).
Penalties: 3:3, extra H. Ruckay (SVK) OK.
PP goals: 1:1.
SH goals: 0:0. Refferees: Scott (CAN), Prchal (SVK). Audience: 300. |
||
 Live coverage on onlajny.cz | ||
Game report
The first period was not too attractive. The tempo was quite slow and only one goal was scored by Miroslav Kristin on a lucky rebound.
It was much busier in front of both nets in the second quarter. First, a Slovak player struck a post, and at the other end Hrusovsky made an excellent save against Palotie´s chance. The end of half belonged to two Slovak power plays, but they were not converted.
Finland shined with some brilliant passing after returning from the dressing room. Lohtander sent a fast pass in front of the net and Sami Markkanen just put his stick into its way to deflect it into the net. A few moments after, Markannen beat the Slovak goalie again.
While Henrich Ruckay was in a penalty box with a double-minor penalty, the Scandinavians did not convert on their chance. Still, they were the slightly more active team and led by a goal.
The Slovaks started the last quarter well, with a successful deke by Filip Novak to tie the game. But the 2-2 score did not last long, as Markannen completed his hat-trick.
Slovakia refused to quit, and in 40th minute they got a goal by Marek Priechodsky. Juoni Aalto had the fourth goal on his stick, but he only hit Hrusovsky´s glove. "I like the Finnish style of play," Hrusovsky said after the game. "This game was really enjoyable for me." 17 seconds before the end of the fourth period, Novak added his second goal in the game. But that wasn`t the end of things.
The Finnish coach used time-out, called off his goalie, and it worked. Seven seconds after the face-off at center, and 10 seconds before time expired, Lohtander scored. After a scoreless overtime period, a shoot-out was needed to decide who will be the winner. And again, Sami Markkanen took responsibility by himself and beat Hrusovsky.
"We had big respect for our opponent today. We are sad that we are leaving the elite group," the Slovak goalie said sadly.
Author: Lucie Muzikova
Game reactions
Nemo Nokkosmaki (Team Finland coach): Today´s game was exactly what we expected from Slovaks. They played defense all the time, they were waiting for our mistakes, did not take so many penalties, had a good goalie and of course better luck. I think the fact that we have more experienced players on our team made the main difference. To be honest, we played the end absolutely excellently. The main key was that we won the face-off and then players knew what to do.
Imrich Antal (Team Slovakia coach): This game was all about who will be relegated from the elite group, because Germany organizes next year´s championship. We played well all game but we only scored 4 goals and inline hockey is all about that. The reality is that we could not bring our best players here. That is the main reason.
