Bitter taste and utter disappointment.
The Finnish under-20 men’s national ice hockey team was left with almost nothing but disappointment from the World Youth Championship.
The Young Lions, who fought themselves to the World Cup bronze medal game after the bottom of the first series, ended their tournament humiliatingly against the Czech Republic.
Finland led the bronze medal game twice, but the Czech Republic came close twice. The last of these climbs ended in a particularly dull way. The Czech Republic scored five goals in the third period, first rising to the side and passing in a flash. Finland’s meltdown in 50 seconds to a 5–8 loss in the third period is unmatched in domestic puck history.
– I’ve seen quite a few hockey matches in my life, but never an ending like that. Especially the last two minutes for sure ever. It was a total paralysis, Urheilu’s hockey expert Top Nättinen describes.
In this story, Nättinen goes through Finland’s disappointing bronze medal match, highlights the successes and failures of Finland’s tournament and looks towards the future.
A fiasco-like third period
Finland’s bronze medal match quickly turned from excellent moments to a disaster. Nuoret Leijonat dominated the game in two periods on several occasions and even took a two-goal lead in half a minute after the first equalizer from the Czech Republic.
At the end of the second round came the Czech Republic By Ondrej Becher however, the underpowered goal turned the direction of the match.
– That underpowered hit was a legendary locker room goal. There was definitely a spirit in the Czech dressing room during the second halftime break that “the difference is no longer just two goals, we’ll make it up”, Nättinen describes.
And that’s how it worked. The last two minutes of the game were pitch black from Finland. The Czech scored four times, twice on empty.
– Until the Czech equaliser, the game was pretty normal. After that, the Finnish team completely collapsed, mentally and game-wise. It all got out of hand even confusingly.
Nättinen sees that the winning goal, which came immediately after the Czech equalizer without a goalkeeper, was also created in a certain way in accordance with the rules of the sport.
– When one team is at full throttle and the other has just waited for the buzzer and defended, the fear of losing is paralyzing. That goal came as a shock right away.
The Czech Republic thanked and took the bronze medals.
In individuals, the top men as failures, the captain as success
On the players’ level, Nättinen is the captain of the tournament Jere Lassilan.
– He was worth gold to Finland and the most important pieces in terms of game and spirit when you think about the whole tournament. He constantly carried his responsibilities and did it also in light of the power points. Even though the tournament sadly ended for him with two underpowered goals, in which I think he was a player who made a decisive mistake, I rate him as a success.
On the other hand, the most difficult place remained those who were promoted as the top players in Finland in advance expectations Lenny Hämeenaho and Jani Nyman. Both players eventually got boosts to their stat columns, but overall they often wandered in the shadow lands.
– Their approach to the game and concretization of the places of action did not really shine in this tournament. The tournament format is blunt about it. When you play dozens of matches during the regular season, that kind of thing can carry, but in the tournament you have to get to the heart of it as soon as you can. In that sense, they were failures in this tournament, Nättinen reasons.
– After all, there were very few successful individuals in Finland.
At the team level, Nättinen singles out playing in special situations as a clear failure. In particular, Alivoima was unbelievably weak from Finland in the tournament as the top ice hockey country. The dominance remained mediocre in the tournament.
– Suomen Alivoima was 60 percent in the tournament. Ten teams played in this tournament and Finland came seventh in that statistic. Only Latvia, Switzerland and Norway remained behind. It was miserable and didn’t work especially in the important games against USA and Czech Republic.
The pressures of the year for the head coach
Urheilu’s ice hockey expert emphasizes that the tournament also gives a glimpse into the moment, the kind of time Finnish ice hockey is living in. The head coach Lauri Mikkola the tournament was a baptism of fire, which produced a lot of challenges.
– He was not a famous coach choice when he arrived at that place. Expectations were not high, but he kind of saved himself in the tournament. However, this ending, the miserable Alivoima and the loss of important moments left such a mark that he is able to lead his team mentally, Nättinen reflects.
– Even though he showed things in terms of playing, he has shocking pressure for next year’s games. Now, during the games, he already had his focal point with the miserable performances, but now that point will grow to last the whole coming year. The pressure on next year’s games played in a small rink will be a really heavy burden.
The grade was on the avoidable side
When considering the school grade of the entire Finnish team and its coaching management in the tournament, Nättinen gives Finland a grade of six and seven, i.e. between avoidable and satisfactory. The end of the tournament makes it unavoidable.
Nättinen emphasizes that Finland was not expected to have great success in this tournament, and therefore the final result must also be compared to the preliminary expectations.
– In my opinion, all of this was the kind of performance worth seven in terms of school grades. Finland held on to the result at important moments, and in terms of play, the score could be higher, because the team found its own way of playing during the tournament. There were a lot of good things.
– However, everything was turned around by the fact that Finland’s game was not able to withstand a bunch of full matches. Nothing about it is even worth a stop.
In Nättinen’s opinion, it is a huge disappointment that Finland does not have medals in the tournament, which also lacks the top ice hockey countries in the world.
– You can’t get over it or get around it, it’s the least important thing for Finland to be in the top four. The fact that the Games are left without a medal is a big disappointment considering the demands of Finnish ice hockey. However, it could be that with this team and that coaching, this result might be the maximum.