Finns undone by Team USA and sent packing from World Championships

Pointless penalties in second period and stand-out performance from Robert Esche lead to defeat

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Finland met the United States last night in a quarter-final encounter in Bern in this year's Ice Hockey World Championships, and were beaten 3-2 and sent on their way to an early summer holiday.
      Without detracting from a very solid performance by the Americans, who took their chances when they were offered, the Finns can really only blame themselves for not securing a semi-final berth against Russia on Friday.
     
After a goalless first twenty minutes in which the American goaltender Robert Esche - previously thought to be a weak link in their side - made 20 saves as the Finns dominated the proceedings, things started to happen in earnest in the second period.
      The Finns finally made the breakthrough that had seemed inevitable, and Niko Kapanen scored on 20:57 with a powerplay goal assisted by the other free-scoring forwards Niklas Hagman and Antti Miettinen.
      At this point, the script looked to be written, and the Finnish fans expected more goals and a comfortable passage into the semis.
     
Unfortunately the goals came at the other end, as the Lions, who had showed exemplary discipline in the first period to avoid taking penalties, suddenly lost the plot.
      Mikko Lehtonen, Hannes Hyvönen, and Jarkko Ruutu all took 2-minute penalties, and the Americans took heart and began to take over the game.
      Finland were forced into playing short-handed three-on-five for nearly a minute, and just as Hyvönen's penalty ended Dustin Brown popped up at the back post to score and equalise matters.
      It only got worse: the Americans then scored twice more - through Timothy Oshie and Ryan Suter - within four minutes to turn the game on its end, and the Finnish game-plan seemingly went out of the window.
     
Even though Hannes Hyvönen made some amends for his earlier lapse by scoring two minutes from the end of the second period, that was as close as the Finns got.
      Team USA shut up shop in the third period, contenting themselves with occasional raids on the counter-attack that actually proved more dangerous than the Finnish efforts to get past Esche.
      When the buzzer went, Esche had made 47 saves to the 32 by Pekka Rinne, but despite the disparity in shooting, the Finns were out of the tournament and the United States were looking forward to a meeting with Russia.
     
Going into the match on the back of a stirring performance on Monday against Canada, and with the recent history of dumping the Americans out of the tournament at this stage in the past two World Championships, the Finns had had high hopes of continuing their campaign, and hence the disappointment level was high.
     
Russia beat Belarus 4-3 in the earlier game on Wednesday evening, but showed their frailties for the first time in the tournament.
      If the Americans can summon up the sort of spirit they showed in the second period, and the same clinical finishing - they made scoring look easy, while the Finns made it look like rocket science - then Friday's semi-final might not be a foregone conclusion.
      Tonight's two quarter-final matches pit Canada against Latvia and Sweden against the Czech Republic.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Penalty shoot-out victory over Canada not quite enough (5.5.2009)

Links:
  2009 IIHF World Championships, Official Site
  IIHF World Championships (Wikipedia)

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