Finland started the EFT tournament preparing for the World Cup by defeating the Czech Republic after a chase.
Joona Rantala and Luukas Hyvärinen turned the match against the Czech Republic into a win for Finland in the floorball ETF tournament in Turku on Friday.
At the beginning of the final set, Rantala finished off Finland’s 3-3 draw with superiority, and Hyvärinen scored a 4-3 winning goal from his pass five seconds before the end of the game.
Sami Johansson was responsible for Finland’s first two goals. He gave Finland the lead with a power play goal after midway through the first period, and started the chase with his tying goal in the second period when Josef Rypar, Tomas Hanak and Ondrej Nemecek had taken the Czech Republic to a 3–1 lead.
Finland dominated the match and won the shots on goal 15–8, but the Czech goalkeeper Lukas Bauer was hardly surprising. Bauer’s save percentage was 84.62. Oskari Fälden’s the percentage fell to 62.50.
In the matches to be played in Rauma, Finland will face Switzerland on Saturday and Sweden on Sunday. For the men’s national team, EFT serves as a preparatory event for the World Championships in Malmö in December.