Young kids steal show in big win for Finland

Finland had no issues stopping Slovakia on Saturday evening in Victoria, winning the game by a score of 5-1 after some great performances from NHL draft prospects.

Finland’s final round-robin game will come against the United States in a game that will take place in two different years in the Eastern time zone on New Year’s Eve. Slovakia’s final game will be a big one for the team still looking for their first win, a 10:30 PM ET game against Kazakhstan.

The Finns held the puck a lot early, but it took them a few minutes to truly get their feet moving and generate dangerous scoring chances. At 12:24 with the two-man advantage, Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Henri Jokiharju scored from inside the point after Aleksi Heponiemi got the puck out past the Slovakian defenders, giving Finland the 1-0 advantage.

Four minutes later, the Finns would get another one past goaltender Samuel Hlavaj. Urho Vaakanainen would help set the play up by sending the disk out to Sami Virtanen in the slot, with Virtanen beating Hlavaj with a quick backhander over the glove to make it 2-0 for the team in white.

A pair of NHL draft prospects connected to give the Finns a 3-0 lead in the second. At 2:02, Jokiharju sent Kaapo Kakko down the ice with the pass. Kakko would find defenceman Ville Heinola pinching in, with Heinola's powerful wrist shot blowing past Samuel Hlavaj to extend Finland's advantage.

The Slovaks just simply couldn’t do anything defensively in their own zone and allowed the Finns to take a 4-0 lead. Heinola would take the puck behind the net, looking up at the slot the entire time. He found 2020 NHL draft prospect Anton Lundell cruising towards the net, with Lundell sending it past Hlavaj to put Finland up even further.

Slovakia would get a goal on a two-man advantage late in the second. Defenceman Martin Fehervary was standing to the right of the Finnish net and got the puck to Calgary Flames prospect Milos Roman. Roman sent the one-timer quickly past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, giving the Slovaks their first goal of the night in a tough period for the squad. Unfortunately for the Slovaks, Oskari Laaksonen would get one for Finland late in the game, sealing the deal in a 5-1 victory for the Finns.

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