This was the best game in Group B, maybe even the entire tournament so far. Finland came into this game hot after beating Latvia 8-0, and Czechia quickly wore that off and went to work.
Game Recap
Things went south at the very beginning of the game for Finland when, with 18:54 left to go in the first period, Veeti Vaisainen was given a five-minute major for cross-checking Tomas Poletin. A minute into the power play, Czechia capitalized on the major penalty, and Matej Kubiesa potted the first goal of the game. Finland would go on to kill the rest of the penalty.
Jasper Pikkarainen went to the box soon after the major was killed, leaving Finland on the penalty kill for seven of the first ten minutes of the period. They killed it off, and then Czechia finally went to the box for the first time in the game, but the Finns failed to convert. Both penalty kill units were on fire the whole evening — there were 41 penalty minutes combined between both teams, and there was only one power-play goal. The first period was all Czechia, with the shots on goal being 11-4 in their favor.
It continued that way into the second period; Finland couldn’t get into their rhythm and failed to play the puck off the boards like they did against Latvia the night before. It wasn’t until the final frame that the Finns picked it up, and Emil Hemming, who was close to scoring the whole period, finally put the puck past Michal Orsulak’s glove for the game-tying goal with only 19 seconds to go in regulation.
The game went to overtime, where Czechia defenseman Adam Jiricek scored a beautiful between-the-legs goal off a feed from Petr Sikora. There was nothing Petteri Rimpinen could do about that, and he has nothing to be ashamed of; he kept Finland in the game.
What’s Next
Czechia will play Latvia on New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Finland will have a much more important game, as if Canada beats Denmark, the game between Finland and Canada on New Year’s Eve will be for Group B.
