Ruutu kills Slovakia’s last hope

Marian Gaborik was disappointed: "We got a good start. But after that it all crashed, they overskated us, they spent most of time in our zone. We stopped skating and acted passively. They tied and it was over. It is a pity mainly fo the fans." Reason? "Miserable power plays, passive play, too few shots. We didn´t screen the goalie. And we were nearly always just trailing the opponents. Last game we are playing for the honor and nothing else."

Glen Hanlon, the Slovak coach, is criticized by the home fans for not using the technical skills of the team and instead play dump-and-run hockey. He says: "It is hard to always talk about losing. I am proud of our group. Our players wanted to win very badly for our fans. There was nobody who did not give 100 per cent. There were three games we ended up losing by one goal. It is hard to take right now, but that is sports and we will fight another day."

Hanlon has two more years on his contract.

Slovakia had the lead for more than half the game. With a little luck Marian Gaborik scored 1-0 at 16:21 on the second Slovak power-play of the first period.

After the goal Finland dominated the game but the Slovak goalie Jaroslav Halak kept his net clean for a long time. The Slovak lead lasted for more than 30 minutes but at 47:14 Tuomo Ruutu tied the game when he beat Halak from the right circle after a face-off.

Three minutes later Halak was unlucky when Ruutu, once again, fired a shot from the left wing and scored 2-1 for Finland.

"I believed that this team could achieve more", says the Slovak defenseman Dominik Granak. It is hard to say which match was the turning point. This tournament was certainly not lost in one game. We were leading in today’s game and in the game against Russia but we lost the third period. It was hard for our psychics".

Slovakia tried to play with the empty net, but they needed to win three points to keep their chances for advancing to the quarterfinals.

"We had plenty of chances but for a long time we could not capitalize them", says the Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen" We show a good character. We trailed by one goal also in the two previous games and we were able to come back and win the game".

Mikko Koivu was also happy: "It is huge victory for us. It does give us a lot of confidence. We played our game even though we gave up the first goal. We worked hard and were able to turn the game over."

 

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