Finland’s win sends USA to the relegation round

31 Dec 2011 | Fredrik Pålsson

Finland had no problem beating Denmark, who only dressed 15 skaters, to qualify for the quarter finals and sending USA to the relegation round

USA was hoping for a sensation from Denmark to still have a chance for the medals but when Denmark only dressed 15 skaters with five players being outside the team due to disciplinary reasons after some bad jokes in the media zone after the loss against Canada chances of a surprise were very slim.

"It was my decision to suspend them" the Danish coach Todd Bjorkstrand said. "We are here to play ice hockey and represent Denmark. Danish ice hockey has come far and I don't want to se players play around after we lost 10-2".

Now the game ended with Finland winning 10-1 and Finland would probably have won even with a full Danish roster.

Finland opened the scoring at 8:26 when Mikka Salomäki scored his first of two goals today beating Feuk from a bad angle and three minutes later Finland had a 3-0 lead after goals from Hakanpää and Pokka. Denmark also had a goal disallowed.

The second period was more even and Denmark also scored their only goal of the game when Patrick Bjorkstrand scored on a penalty shot. In the third period it was all about Finland who scored five goals, the four last of them by Teemu Pulkkinen.

"We wanted to play the whole 60 minutes," Teemu Pulkkinen said. "We didn’t play so well, but Denmark wasn’t so good. We got easy goals. We need to be better against the Czechs."

Finland is now qualified for the quarter finals and will play the Czechs about second place in the group, the winner there will play Switzerland or Slovakia in the quarter final the loser will play Sweden or Russia. The result also seals the destiny for the USA that will have to play in the relegation round where they will bring the win against Denmark. With only one team being relegated this year, it will probably be the game between Latvia and Denmark that will be all decisive for which team is relegated.

"It’s going to be exciting, I’m positive that we’re going to make two good games there and stay up", the Danish captain Jannik Christensen said about the relegation round.