The Little Lions beat Slovakia 4–0 in Espoo in the Under-18 Ice Hockey World Championships. In the second period, we saw an unpleasant situation when Slovakia’s defender Samuel Kupec was injured.
The Slovakia-Finland preliminary series match of the under-18 boys’ ice hockey World Cup in Espoo took a scary turn at the beginning of the second period.
Little lions Heikki Ruohonen was tackled by a defender behind the goal at the end of Slovakia Samuel Kupecia. The Slovak player was left lying on the ice on his stomach.
Kupec was assisted by a medical staff. During the treatment procedures performed on the ice, black screens were brought in front of him to protect his vision. Kupec was taken from the rink on a stretcher surrounded by vision shields.
There was no high speed in the situation. Ruohonen pushed Kupec from the back just as the Slovakian pack was about to turn back behind its goal.
After a video inspection, Ruohonen received a jet command for a wing tackle.
Editor of Discovery Anni Jämsä reports on Kupec’s situation from the dressing room corridor at the beginning of the second period break.
– So much situation update here that a moment ago he left for further examinations, but is conscious and was able to talk to the Slovakian doctor.
Discovery expert Antti-Jussi Niemi upset the situation in the studio. In his opinion, the situation was both bad luck and an ill-advised act on Ruoho’s part.
– That’s when the deck turned just before, which created the event itself. A little pushed from the upper back. After all, it’s bad luck, how you hit the head and at what angle. Very sad situation. A little unnecessary push on the upper back. When Taklaus is going and sees the back, the upper back should not be pushed there.
Little Lions took a 4–0 lead in the opening set. TPS attacker Emil Hemming opened the finish taps with superiority in 6:27.
In the second set, Kiekko-Espoo’s attacker Ruohonen, who received a commanding shower, scored 2-0 less than a minute after the opening goal.
At the end of the opening set, they hit TPS Kasper Pikkarainen and the KalPa youth Joona Saarelainen.
The Jukurit sensation, who was previously involved in the Lions’ World Cup camp Konsta Helenius and Kiekko-Espoon Tuomas Suoniemi collected two assist points to a man.
After the opening set, there were no more goals in the match.
In their previous matches of the tournament, Little Lions had beaten Latvia 3–1 and Norway 7–0.
Finland ends its preliminary group against the USA on Tuesday, May Day. The bet is the group win.
The tournament will be played in Espoo and Vantaa from April 25 to May 5, 2024. There are 10 teams and they are divided into two initial groups. The four best from both initial groups advance to the quarterfinals.
Finland’s match schedule, standings and other information about the games can be found at this link (text TV).