3-2 win puts Finland through as group winners: Latvia next opponent

Slovakia tumble out after Norway upset Germany

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Finland’s hockey team progressed from the Preliminary Round at the IIHF World Championships in Canada at the head of Group C, after winning an ultimately nervy victory over Slovakia on Wednesday.
      The match ended 3-2 (2-2, 1-0, 0-0), but for the greater part of the third period, it was one-way traffic around the Finnish net as Slovakia pressed furiously in an attempt to get an equaliser, and Finnish goalie Niklas Bäckström had to come up with a string of big saves while his opposite number Peter Budaj was practically unemployed.
     
It had all started so differently, with the Finns cruising into a 2-0 lead through goals from Niko Kapanen (2:05) and TuomoRuutu on the powerplay (13:00).
      The Slovaks have played a roller-coaster brand of hockey thus far in this tournament, thrashing Norway in their opener before losing 4-2 to Germany, and now they switched on their better game again to get back on level terms.
      The first response came just 14 seconds after Finland’s goal, as captain Robert Petrovicky slotted the puck past Bäckström, and an equaliser followed through Miroslav Kovacik with two minutes left on the clock.
     
Aside from the third Finnish goal, the only incidents of note in the second period were a couple of 2-minute penalties for the Slovaks, and it was in the first of these that winger Teemu Selänne teamed up with Ville Peltonen and Olli Jokinen before firing home from the blue line.
     
In the third period, the discipline hitherto shown by the Finns - only one penalty in 40 minutes of play - went pear-shaped. The first minutes after the restart were somewhat scrappy with misdirected passes on both sides, and it looked as though all the pace and energy had gone out of the game.
      But as soon as Ossi Väänänen had collected a minor penalty for interference after eight minutes, all hell broke loose and the Slovaks were camped out around the Finnish goal.
      No sooner had Väänänen served his time, when Hannes Hyvönen collected 5 + 20 for taking out Tomas Starostan with a rash charge.
      The Finnish penalty-killers then had their work cut out to hold the lines as an increasingly desperate Slovakia threw everything but the kitchen sink in Bäckström’s direction.
     
Slovakia had a lot riding on this match: after defeat to Germany, they knew that a second loss would leave their fate in other hands, and that if Norway could beat Germany in regulation time in the later game, it would spell a trip to the relegation rounds for them.
      But despite outshooting the Finns by a remarkable 14 to zero, they could not find a way through, and Finland's head coach Doug Shedden could be proud of the way his team had raised their game when it counted.
     
When the dust had settled on the late-night game, Norway had duly confounded the pre-tournament pundits by beating Germany 3-2, after coming from 0-2 down after 25 minutes.
      This left Group C in an unexpected marching order: the Finns won the group much as expected, but Norway were second with four points, Germany third with three, and by virtue of having lost to the Germans, the Slovaks brought up the rear and will now face Slovenia in a best-of-three playoff to see which of them drops down to Division 1 next year.
      Even though a good many Slovaks active in the NHL chose to play golf instead of hockey this May, the result is still something of a shock, since Slovakia won the entire tournament in 2002 and took a bronze medal the following year. At last year's World Championships they finished 6th.
     
By winning the group, the Finns booked themselves a day off before they play Latvia on Friday in the first of three Qualification Round games.
      The other two opponents are rather tougher: Team USA on Sunday and Canada on Monday.
      Because Norway (rather than Slovakia or Germany, whom the Finns beat in regulation time) progressed, the Finns will carry forward only five points into the Qualification Round instead of the maximum of six. How important this is remains to be seen.
      In any event, the better their placing in this upcoming stage, the easier (at least on paper) will be their programme in the quarter-finals, where matches are played such that the winners of each Qualification Round group (Groups E and F) play the fourth-placed team, and the runners-up play the third-placed team.
      Somewhat unusually, it will be 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 from the same Qualification Round group, rather than E1 against F4, E2 against F3, etc., and so teams could conceivably find themselves playing each other twice in successive matches.
     
Norway’s win over Germany was impressive, but it was probably not the biggest shock of Wednesday’s matches.
      That honour goes to Switzerland, who brushed past Sweden 4-2 to top the table with maximum points.
      In the other Group A game, Belarus defeated France 3-1 to go forward in third spot, while France will play Italy over three matches to see who can avoid the drop.
      The Swedish anguish was made even worse by a two-game suspension handed out to defenseman Niclas Wallin for knocking out Switzerland’s Roman Wick and leaving him with concussion.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finns struggle to 3-2 overtime victory over dogged Norway (6.5.2008)
  Finnish Lions start World Championships campaign with routine win over Germany (5.5.2008)

Links:
  2008 IIHF World Championships (Wikipedia)

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