Czech Republic and Finland win Karjala openers

07 Nov 2012 | Henrik Lundqvist

The Czechs with Alexander Salak in the net shut out the Swedes winning 3-0 while Finland got a shoot-out win against Russia on the opening day of the first EHT tournament of the season - Karjala Tournament.

The Karjala Tournament is this season played in Turku. Except for today's game Czech Republic-Sweden that was played in Liberec.

The Czech's won it 3-1 and all the goals were scored in the last period. Tomas Plekanec opened the scoring at 40:37 and Michal Vondrka made it 2-0 after a beautiful combination with Petr Koukal. Jiri Tlusty made it 3-0 for the Czechs on a powerplay in the 53rd minute. With a minute remaining Carl Söderberg also used a power play to score the only Swedish goal of the night.

Sweden started the game best and out-shot the Czechs 16-6 in the first period. They got to play a 2-man advantage for a minute and a half but couldn't get the puck past Alexander Salak in the Czech net. In the other period it was the other way around with the Czechs shooting 14 shots and the Swedes 6.

The teams now travel to Turku, Finland where games against Russia and Finland await.

Petteri Nummelin got the winner when Finland beat Russia 2-1 in a shoot-out game. It was Russia that took the lead early in the second period when Artem Anisimov beat Pekka Rinne. With a little more than nine minutes of the third period Teemu Laine tied it for the home team and the game continued in a scoreless overtime period. In the shootout Petteri Nummelin and Sakari Salminen scored for Finland while the Russian shooters Yevgeny Kuznetsov and Artem Anisimov both failed.