Finland wins 4-1 against Russia at IIHF World Championships, play Sweden in final
Finland against Russia was the second semi-final at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships 2011.
The game was expected to be on the slower side with both teams in the balance but this wasn’t the case as it proved to be an entertainer with the Finnish totally dominating the proceedings.
Finland’s goal keeper, Petri Vehanen, came up with a fabulous performance that saw him making 30 saves during the course of the game. This was coupled with a brilliant first goal that can said to be the goal of the championships.
In the end, Finland won the game 3-0 after a dominating performance in offence and defence. The game was on the slower side for much of the first period but the pace picked up, as the period neared its end. There were several shots on goal by both sides
but no goals were scored.
However, this led to a very strong offensive start to the second period by both teams and this time, it was the Finnish, who were to score a goal. The goal was scored after a partial mistake at the back that saw the defender taking the puck in the Russian
corner. The Finnish forward chased him down and scored the goal from a brilliant scoop shot.
"Wow," Finnish alternate captain, Lasse Kukkonen, said. "That’s all I can say. I knew he could do it. He's done it before in Finland but I didn't think he could do it at the World Championship. He's amazing".
Finland was getting better and better with the passage of time and scoring chances constantly kept on coming. Finland was able to capitalize from the chances and they scored twice through Jani Lajunen and Jarkko Immonen to put themselves in a comfortable
3-0 lead.
"We're very happy to be among the best two teams in the world", Finnish coach, Jukka Jalonen said. "We deserved it, as we played a very good game. Our power play worked well and our penalty kill worked well. That's the reason we won today".
Alex Ovechkin, Captain of the Washington Capitals continued to struggle, as he played in his fourth game with Russia but still wasn’t able to score his first point thus far.
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