The Finnish sky ended with a bronze festival at the World Hockey Championships for under-18s in Germany.
STT Sports,
Matti Lehtisaari
1.5. 18:17 • Updated 1.5. 18:55
The Finnish national hockey team for under-18s turned Saturday’s semi-final disappointment into Sunday’s bronze joy. The Little Lions defeated the Czech Republic 4-1 in the World Championship bronze match when the captain Jere Lassila (2 + 2), striker Joakim Kemell (2 + 1) and goalkeeper Topias Leinonen were in key roles.
The medal is Finland’s 12th and first since the 2018 World Championships in boys’ history. To Mika Marttila the medal is already the fourth head coach under the age of 18.
The perfect matches did good for Kemelli, who with his hat trick guaranteed Finland’s entry into the semi-finals, but turned into a frog on Saturday. Sweden scored the winning goal during his cold and pushed Finland into the bronze match.
In a bronze match in Landshut on Sunday, Kemell finished a tasty 1-1 draw in the opening round and scored the lead in the second set.
– There are not always such opportunities. We put it all in the game that we’ll take the medal, Kemell underlined the energy after enough semifinal disappointment.
Captain Lassila snapped points for both Kemelli’s full hits and excelled as a scorer in the final. Lassila solved the game with his 3–1 goal, to which Kemell grabbed the pass. In the last minute, Lassila riveted the final scores to an empty goal.
A special national team sky
The boys’ team in Finland and the Czech Republic in the 2004 age group was special, when the corona pandemic in the 2019–2020 period for those under 16 came to mix with the program for the spring season. In the following season, there were no international matches in Marttila’s protective roads under the age of 17.
This season, the game got off to a smooth start, but Korona wiped out the matches in the winter.
At the end of February, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also affected the world of sports and led to the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from the World Cup. Russia’s intervention opened the door to top-notch, but on the other hand, Finland has been one of the long-term successors of people under 20 and under 18 since the 2010s.
– Amazing feeling. Medal won. It was not easy to leave this game. We’ve been on the road for three years and one game was left. At first we were shy, but in the end we deserved the win, head coach Marttila said.
05.27 0–1 Becher (Bares, Nemec)
09.05 1–1 Kemell (Kiviharju, Lassila)
33.24 2–1 Kemell (Kaskimäki, Lassila)
54.58 3–1 Lassila (Kemell)
59.11 4–1 Lassila (Laakso) etc.