For the Finnish men’s national ice hockey team coached by Antti Pennanen, even one point against Sweden would have been enough to win the EHT home tournament.
Carrying lions through the EHT tournament Harri Pesonen (2+1) and Mikael Ruohomaa (2+0) lifted Finland from behind by two goals to a 5–4 victory over Sweden in a sold-out ice rink in Helsinki.
Pesonen scored a 4–3 goal for Finland in the third period and Ruohomaa scored the decisive winning goal in 54:35.
Pesonen, who hit in every tournament match, won the tournament with a score of 5+1. Played a big role in the three Finnish hits of the evening Toni Rajala ranked second in the points exchange with 1+4=5. The third leg of the chain Ruohomaa, your balance in the tournament is 2+2.
– A bullish event. What warms the heart the most is the players’ commitment and desire to join the national team. We are talking about lion values, which have been cherished there for many years. We want to preserve and cherish them, praised the debutant as head coach Antti Pennanen.
– In terms of play, defending the big ice was the most memorable. We were able to play tight and scored some good goals. At the same time, we disrupted the opponents’ attacks very well, said a satisfied Pennanen.
The lions won for the second time from 0–2
Sweden sneaked into a 1-0 lead in the third minute, when a well-composed attack ended from the second wave by Jesper Sellgren exactly to the top corner. At the end of the opening set Oskar Steen extended Tre Kronor’s lead to two after a strong end game.
In the first period, the Lions had their own places to score, but were not as effective in finishing as their western neighbor. Keeper For Harri Säter the beginning was difficult, because of the three opening shots aimed at the goal, two pucks slipped behind the back from the glove hand side into the upper slot.
– We were calm, even though we were a bit on the scaffolding at the beginning. The guy was quite shy at the beginning, then in the second he got into a good rhythm, said Pesonen.
Finland also had a 0–2 loss against Switzerland in Thursday’s opening match, but even then they came from a bad place to win.
Pesonen’s lighter of the Lions
Sweden was only a couple of centimeters away from a three-goal lead when Emil Pettersson hit the post with a game tool immediately to start the second set.
After this, Finland’s sharper grip began to bear fruit. Toni Rajalan high pressing play brought a decisive possession of the puck, from which Pesonen was able to feed Ruohomaa’s 1-2 tying goal in 24:24.
The conductor of the home tournament, Pesonen, led the score to 2-2 from the back corner in the middle of the set Santtu Kinnusen from the shot. Sport defender Atro Leppänen caused the second input tag to be hit. It was the first power point scored by a Finnish SM league player at EHT.
Sampo Beach got the first goal of his national team career in the sweet spot, when the Modo striker directed Kinnusen from the line, 3-2, past the powerless goalkeeper by Jacob Johansson in the 36th minute.
At the end of the set, during Finland’s first penalty Dennis Rasmussen guided Sweden to the end of the set at 3–3 with superiority from Pettersson’s foreplay. The crown jerseys received help from the Czech referees From Jakub Sindel and From Adam Kikawhen the Swedish player’s stick hit his own player in the face, but it went to the ice shelf Peetro Seppälä.
Pesonen’s 4-3 full hit was still not a solution, a good minute after the hit Patrik Karlkvist scored with superiority to Sweden 4-4 in the 50th minute. In the end, that too was wasted, when Ruohomaa scored from in front of the goal to make it 5–4 in 54:35.
– It would have been nice to challenge Sweden’s equalizer, when it looked like the puck was in the middle area before that. However, that is not possible. Fortunately, “Ruoho” was able to shovel one more. We were cool, that is, the stages were ready when the place came, grinned Pesonen.
In the Czech match, the Lukko defender hurt his leg at the end of the puck Nuutti Viitasalo moved with crutches.
Men’s EHT hockey tournament, HelsinkiFinland–Sweden 5–4 (0–2, 3–1, 2–1)
03.14 0-1 Sellgren (Friberg, Lang)
15.15 0–2 Steen (Petersson)
24.24 1–2 Ruohomaa (Pesonen)
29.58 2–2 Pesonen (Kinnunen, Leppänen)
36.00 3–2 Ranta (Kinnunen, Koivula)
37.26 3–3 Rasmussen (Pettersson, Söderström) yv
49.51 4–3 Pesonen (Rajala,Salo) yv
50.58 4–4 Karlkvist yv
54.35 5–4 Ruohomaa (Rajala) yv
Goalkeeper saves:
Harri Säteri FIN 3+ 6+ 4= 13
Jacob Johansson SWE 10+ 6+ 7= 23
Helsinki EHT tournament
Thu 7.11.
Czech Republic–Sweden 5–2
Switzerland–Finland 2–3 and
Sat 9.11.
Sweden–Switzerland 3–4 yrs
Finland–Czech Republic 4–0
Sun 10.11.
Czech Republic–Switzerland 5–2
Finland–Sweden 5 to 4
Final order:
Finland 3 2 1 0 0 12- 6 8
Czech 3 2 0 0 1 10- 8 6
Switzerland 3 0 1 1 1 8- 11 3
Sweden 3 0 0 1 2 9- 14 1