EHT: Karjala tournament day 1

In Helsinki Russia came out very strong and outshot the home team 15-4 in the first period. Aleksandr Radulov scored the only goal of the period with a hard power play shot and Russia looked good for victory.

But in the second it was Finland who dominated the game with 15-5 in shots on goal but no goals were scored. Instead Sami Vatanen tied the game with a shot from the blue line 22 seconds into the third period.

Even if Finland continued to dominate the game no more goals were scored and the game was decided in a shootout where Russia won 2-0. Radulov scored the game winner and got his second goal of the game. Notable is that Finland's defender Janne Niskala had 10 shots on goal.

Finland's goalie Kari Rämö was great in the first period and said after the game "We weren't awake at all in the first period. It was really poor. We played better against the end of the game but we weren't good enough in power play".

Finland's coach Jukka Jalonen were disapointed "The third period was the best, but it isn't good enough. 20 minutes is to short time. It bothers me that we were so ineffective. It's good that we forced the Russians to take penalties but we weren't selfish enough on the power play and the quality of the shots were bad."



In Örnsköldsvik, Sweden the Czech Republic won 5-2 against Sweden. Petr Nedved made it 1-0 when Sweden's goalie Gustaf Wesslau didn't close the gap on the near post. KHL star Jakub Petruzalek made it 2-0 for the Czechs on an early power play in the second.

Sweden reduced the lead to 1-2 when Andreas Jämtin picked up a rebound on power play and beat Stepanek who was to far out from the line to stop the rebound.

After the goal Sweden had more of the momentum and had a good chance with a 3 on 1 which they failed to convert but less than an a minute later Jonas Andersson tied the game with hard shot from just inside the blue line on a quick attack.

The Czechs quickly went up to 5-2 in the beginning of the third. First soon fourty year old Petr Nedved when went in from the right flank and found the net high over Wesslau's shoulder. 4-2 came luckily when Jiri Novotny's pass hit the skate of a Swedish defender and fooled Wesslau. 41 seconds later Petruzalek scored his second of the game with a nice deflection.

Sweden's goalie Gustaf Wesslau were very disapointed after the game and were ironic when he  "I could try save of couple shots as well, I even let an easy wrist shot from the corner in".

After going up to 5-2 the Czechs could do what they always have done best, play defensively and go on counter attacks and they did that very succesful and were closer to 6-2 than 5-3 for Sweden.

The Czech team with a lot of experience played better together than the Swedish team with several debutants and won very well deserved.

 

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