Finland’s golden goal

For Finland, it's always great to beat Sweden. But what this team did -- after playing in the relegation round last year and wasn't favoured to win any medal, then beat Canada in the semifinal and archrival Sweden in the final in front of large crowds that consisted almost entirely of Canadians and Swedes -- is simply amazing.

"Nobody thought we would win but we believed in ourselves," said team captain and tournament leading scorer Teuvo Teräväinen, who had 15 points and assisted on all three Finnish goals in the final. "We knew were gonna be a good team and have a chance to win this tournament."

His opposite number was Filip Forsberg, the Swedish captain who entered the game tied with Teravainen for the tournament scoring lead. Forsberg, however, was blanked in the final.

"We were playing in their zone the whole game," said the Nashville Predators prospect and tournament MVP. "Obviously, it’s hard to lose like this."

Finland had two leads in the game and twice saw the Swedes tie it on power plays, but they didn't fold, took the game to overtime, and won it on an amazing goal by defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen, which stunned the sellout crowd in Malmö.

"I got the puck and saw that they were playing man-to-man defence," described the tournament's top defenceman and newest hockey hero. "I just skated there and tried to put the puck somewhere hard, and it went in."

Their opening goal of the game was nearly as stunning. With a pumped-up crowd to start the game, the Swedish fans were silenced at the 28-second mark, when Esa Lindell's shot from the point beat Oskar Dansk top corner, with Teräväinen providing a perfect screen in front.

"That was a very big goal for us to score so quickly," said Finnish coach Karri Kivi. "It was very loud to start and you could feel the energy leave the arena right away."

"We could have started the game a little better and we needed to take advantage of our scoring chances better, said André Burakowsky, who had 7 points in the tournament, but nothing in the final. "They put a lot of players in front of the net and play well there, but we still had scoring chances and we needed to use them."

Finland is a difficult team to play against when they have the lead -- Canada found that out in the semifinal -- but one area where Sweden was strong was the power play. Tre Kronor was 2-for-6 with the man advantage, and they tied it up in the 28th minute, when Lucas Wallmark unloaded a rocket from the top of the faceoff circle, beating a screened Juuse Saros inside the post. 

"It didn't bother me too much because I believed in the team," said Saros, who stopped 35 of 37 shots in the game and was named to the tournament all-star team. "I like it when there's a lot to do, of course. That's why I'm in the net."

Once again the home crowd was whipped up into a frenzy, but once again the Finns silenced them quickly. It took just 45 seconds for Saku Mäenalainen to snap home a shot after taking a pass from linemate Teräväinen. 

"We started very well in the second period, just tried keep the puck out of our zone. We just played defence the whole period," Ristolainen explained. "In the third period we got too many penalties. Those calls from the ref, I think they were pretty soft."

In that third period, the Finns got three straight penalties, which Kivi clearly wasn't happy with. 

"We expect that when we come to Sweden," the Finnish coach said with a wry grin when questioned about the officiating, despite the fact that the referees came from Canada and Switzerland. "If you look at those three calls on replay, maybe one of them was a real penalty."

The Finns killed off the first two, but Sweden finally tied it on the third attempt when Christian Djoos's blast from the point found room under the crossbar with 9:07 to play in regulation time. 

"Finland is hard to play against when they have the lead. We saw that against Canada," said Swedish coach Richard Grönberg. "The fact that we were able to come back twice against them shows what kind of character we have on the team."

Both teams were going for the win in overtime, with the shots 6-5 for Finland. Both Saros and Dansk stopped the first five shtos they faced, but Dansk couldn't quite get the sixth.

Just shy of the game's 70-minute mark, Ristolainen made an amazing play, carrying the puck down low, then cutting out front and beating Dansk with a backhander that slid under his right pad. 

"He's a great player and he showed his skill there," said Grönberg, referring to Ristolainen. 

"I'm tremendously proud of what we accomlished in this tournament," he went on to say. "We didn't lose in regulation the whole tournament. Overall, I'm happy with the way we played. We just had an opponent that scored in overtime against us." 

This third goal silenced the Swedish fans one more time, but the team exploded in jubilation, celebrating this unexpected victory.

But for Sweden, who were heavily-favoured in the game, defeat is agony.

"Nobody is happy. Everybody is sitting alone, not talking to each other," said Burkakowsky. "We lost a WJC final so there is not much to say. Everybody had expected us to win this game and celebrate and have fun, but all this died away now."

But as a team of players that have suffered many defeats to these same Swedish players over the years, don't expect much sympathy from Finland.

"I hear Sweden will have some party here, so maybe we'll going there too," joked Teravainen. "Maybe we can have a good party together."

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