Denmark missing most of their NHL stars without a chance against Finland

30 Apr 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist, David Schlegel

Denmark without their NHL players Frans Nielsen, Jannik Hansen, Lars Eller, Peter Regin and Philip Larsen was outshot 44-9 by Finland who eventually won the game 5-1.

Finland dominated the game from the start till the end but the goals had to wait.

The Finns took many shots during a power-play a few minutes into the second period and on the last one Jarkko Immonen scored off the post. Just a few seconds later the Danish goalie Frederik Andersen fell and was almost beaten again. 2-0 would come with three and a half minute remaining of the middle act, also in power-play. Quick skating Juhamatti Aaltonen could undisturbed skate towards the net and score.

Antti Pihlström got a nice long backhand pass from Mika Pyörälä and found himself alone with Andersen to score 3-0 at 42:39.

Nicklas Hardt scores assisted by Julian Jakobsen
Photo: Roman Kucera

The Danish team still hadn't given up and when they got a power-play opportunity in the middle of the last period Julian Jakobsen shot off the cross-bar, picked up the rebound and passes Nicklas Hardt who was forgotten by the Finnish defense and scored 3-1. "Finland was totally dominating the game. We were harmless," said the Danish coach Per Bäckman.

Finland added another two goals and got the well deserved win. Janne Niskala shot from the blue-line for 4-1 and when the Danes looked tired Tuomo Ruutu could add 5-1.

"A really good and smooth game by us. We played solid for 60 minutes and won fairly. Denmark did not have much to say," said Finland's young Championship debutant Mikael Granlund.

Finland's Leo Komarov was injured in a hand and it is not known when he can play again.