Finland’s under-20 men’s national ice hockey team advanced to the top four in the World Cup tournament. Jere Lassila emerged again at an important moment.
Joel Holma,
Jussi Saarinen
Captain of the Young Lions Jere Lassila gave Finland a win in the quarter-final against Slovakia at the Under-20 World Cup in Sweden.
The JYP forward took possession of the puck in his own zone in the overtime, misled Slovakia’s defense and tipped the puck into the goal. Finland won 4–3 and advanced to the semi-finals, where they will probably face the United States.
The match was a rollercoaster and difficult for Finland: Finland took a 3–2 lead at the end of the third period, but Slovakia leveled in the last minute of the period.
The overtime had been played for 24 seconds when Lassila decided the match for Finland.
– The first thing in my mind after the goal was great joy and relief. When the match was an up-and-down mood, there are many thoughts in the mind, team captain Lassila opened up to Urheilu after the match.
Lassila has captained Nuoret Leijonat in the World Cup. Already earlier against Sweden, he threw himself in the path of the puck in his own area and blocked the home team’s decisive shot. Later, Finland leveled up and won.
– I was hungry to beat Slovakia. The Sweden game gave me confidence. We know what the best of our game is. We didn’t reach our best level today, but the win is the only thing that matters.
The semi-final is on Thursday, and according to Lassila, a rest day will be needed. Lassila got almost 20 minutes of playing time in the match. It was clearly the most of the Finnish attackers.
– I was at the end of time and I was allowed to twist until the end.
Slovakia’s 1–0 goal spoke volumes in the match. It was born just 0.2 seconds before the end of the first period. The goal was checked on video and accepted. The situation was confusing because, based on the replay, it seemed that after the start, so much time passed in the situation that the puck could not reach the net within the playing time.
Lassila himself was losing the start of his own end, after which the goal was born unexpectedly.
– It brought anger to the game. There was so little time in the Game Clock (1.7 seconds) that such a thing shouldn’t happen. I thought this still needs to be acknowledged back.
According to Lassila, the team’s goal was to play in the medal games.
– We want to go all the way. Hopefully I can score more goals and lead the team to victory.
Is World Cup gold realistic?
– Of course it is, Lassila decides.
Finland’s previous World Cup gold for men under the age of 20 was from 2019.
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.