According to Cutter Gauthier, the USA had fun in the opening group, but he emphasizes that those games no longer matter. Finland will face the United States on Thursday in the World Cup semi-final.
GOTHENBURG.
On Thursday, Finland will face rock-hard opposition in the semi-finals, when the United States, which has been struggling since the first group, will be up against them.
The champion favorite of the Youth World Cup has scored 36 goals in five matches and let 11 into his own net. Most recently, it defeated Latvia 7–2 in the quarterfinals.
USA star forward Cutter Gauthier says that the team with wins and successes had a lot of fun in the group stage, but now those games don’t matter.
– In contrast, these games mean the most. Finland also had a rough start to the Games, but that doesn’t matter either. We look forward to meeting them.
Powers 1+9 Gauthier, who played in the Junior World Championships, doesn’t know much about the Finnish team. He knows that Finland’s start was difficult, but emphasizes that it doesn’t matter because the team is good.
– They certainly got angry enough and beat good teams after that. They are also in the semifinals for a reason.
Some may remember Gauthier from last spring’s men’s World Championships in Tampere. He scored 7+2 in the games and followed the advice he received from NHL players.
Gauthier describes the Games as a really great experience.
– I got to play with all NHL players and professionals. It was a really cool time learning from them. They gave me one piece of advice: relax. I did that and it worked there. It was really fun.
Finland is on the US team To Tommi Männistö familiar players, because the striker Isaac Howard and the goalkeeper Trey Augustine play on the same University of Michigan team.
Howard has been able to hear stories about Finland from Männistö.
– It gets dark early in Finland and it is quite similar to Sweden. You can catch a lot of fish there, says Howard.
– Playing against Tommi will certainly be fun.
Do you think you’ll get a little squealing during the game?
– Isn’t it. When you meet friends in hockey, it becomes personal in a way. That’s the fun aspect of this sport.
Howard’s teammate Männistö has been a surprising scorer in Nuori Leijon. He scored only one goal in 15 games in Michigan in the early season, but three goals have already been seen in the World Cup.
– It has gone very well. I feel that I have succeeded better than I expected. My game doesn’t necessarily need power points and goals, but it’s very nice that I’ve been helped by a team, Männistö estimates.
Männistö says that he is personally very much looking forward to facing the United States.
– A very tough game coming up. We get to measure as a team, but also ourselves as players. I believe that we will get results with our own work.
Young Lions forward Jani Nyman talks about the team’s tournament and self-confidence in a video.
Urheilu closely follows the under-20 hockey world championships in the application and on its website. Moods are also conveyed on Urheilurutu and Urheiluradio. The match program can be found here. Finland-USA starts at 20:30.