Leijonien’s EHT tournament went down completely – Jukka Jalonen found a clear reason for Sweden’s loss

The Lions experienced yesterday’s loss to the Czech Republic as a follow-up to a loss to Sweden in the EHT hockey tournament. Sweden managed to keep Suomen Kiri at bay in the final set.

Finland’s minor victories continued in the home tournament of the Euro Hockey Tour, when Sweden beat Tampere 4–2 in Areena. After Finland’s opening goal, Sweden struck Four in two sets and, despite their ice, was able to freeze the game sufficiently in the final set.

Sweden took three ices in the final set, but Finland succeeded in narrowing it down only two minutes before the final buzzer. Juha Jääskä shot directly from the pass with the second hit of his national team career to make the final scores 2–4.

– A lot culminated in our inefficiency. There were chances to score more than two goals. Our special situations were bad both today and throughout the tournament. They were the weakest part of our game, maybe we have to support ourselves, Finland’s head coach Jukka Jalonen analyzes for .

The Lions controlled the puck for long periods in Sweden’s end, but the western neighbor was better in their goal positions.

– In the second set, the opponent used their “momentum” to their advantage. We were able to push the game to Sweden’s end for long periods of time, but we were not effective, Finland’s captain Hannes Björninen said to after the match.

Finland only managed to score once with its six overtime attempts. Sweden used two of its three advantages in the form of a goal.

After yesterday’s 3–7 loss, the Finnish team went through the problem areas on video night. In the Sweden match, the team was able to defend the sad Czech match more closely.

– We tried to defend more aggressively, especially the center was quite open at the beginning of the game yesterday, Jalonen summarized the things he went through.

The head coach and the captain praised the team’s attitude. The traditional Sweden match on Father’s Day ignited the team to fight.

– Our work ethic was good all the time, such a fighting look. We didn’t give up today either, Jalonen said.

– Everyone had a good attitude and readiness to fight, Björninen emphasized.

Despite better performances than yesterday, Finland’s goal difference from the last two matches was a sad 5 scored and 11 conceded.

The situation turned dark quickly

Henrik Borgström scored the opening goal of the match just under four minutes into the game. The Swedish club HV71’s forward tapped the puck from a direct attack past the Swedish goalkeeper of Daniel Marmelin from between the legs to the net.

However, Sweden leveled the game after the half of the set Mario Kempen on the finish line.

Finland took two ices at the end of the set, one of which Sweden took advantage of. Oscar Lindberg the Finnish goalie pressed the puck at the end of a strong Myllytsi Christian Heljankon behind.

An even set is told by the fact that Heljanko fought off the fight nine times in the opening set, as did Marmelind.

Jäähy took revenge on Finland in the second set as well. Sweden took a 3–1 lead with Kempe’s second hit of the night, when Leijonien Ahti Oksanen sat for two minutes of blocking.

Just over two minutes later Marcus Sylvegaard scored Sweden’s fourth goal on an even field. Leijonat was quickly in a really difficult situation and with a three-goal deficit, just like yesterday’s Czech match.

In the second set, Heljanko blocked 4/6 shots, while at the other end, Marmelind stretched in front of every six shots.

As is typical for the EHT tournament, Finland also had several first-timers in national team games. Jalonen said that the team will practically change completely for the next tournament in Switzerland in order to get as much information as possible about the players playing in Europe.

In the Finnish tournament, the national team’s first-timers were the goalkeeper Roope Taponen as well as field players Henrik Bogström, Ville Koivunen, Jesper Mattila, Niko Huuhtanen mixed Kristian Vesalainen. According to Jalonen, the coaching staff got a lot of information about the players in the home tournament.

– These games pretty brutally tell us where to go. If he can play well here, we know he is an international level player. If something is a little lacking, you have to try to instruct the boys on what needs to be improved. However, nobody played badly.