Finns skate past of Norway

The two teams that lost in shootouts yesterday faced off this afternoon at CUTX in Allen, Texas this afternoon, the Finns defeating Norway with an impressive 7-1 performance.

A balanced attack was buoyed by a three-goal second period to pull away, and now the Finns are 1-1 in the Group A standings while Norway falls to 0-2.

The Finns got the only goal of the opening period off the rush. Matias Vanhanen converted a nice pass from Aapo Vanninen to make it 1-0 at 8:15. Norway had only three shots in the period and weren’t much of a threat, but they came out with greater purpose in the second.

They had a great to tie early when Ola Hyldmo earned a breakaway, only to be stopped by Patrik Kerkola. Soon after Jeremi Virtanen had a breakaway of his own after claiming the puck off a defensive-zone faceoff and dashing the length of the ice. But he, too, was stopped, by Olivers Freimanis.

Suomi doubled their lead at 5:52 when Rasmus Pakarinen banged in a rebound after an aggressive rush ot the net by Eetu Orpana. Three minutes later they made it 3-0 when Max Westergard stole the puck in the slot and fired a shot top shelf at 9:08.

Just 43 seconds, however, the Norwegians got back  into the game. Captain Marius Maattanen skated the length of the ice, and although Kerkola stopped the original shot, Maattanen picked up his own rebound and made no mistake.

Moments later, Freimanis suffered a freak injury, Going behind his net to play the puck, he twisted his knee as he cleared it along the boards, falling in pain. Maximillian Aas, who played yesterday until being replaced by Freimanis only for the shootout, came on in relief. The team’s third goalie, Felix Timraz-Westin, huslted to the dressing room and got to the bench early in the third as the backup to Aas.

Not long after, the Finns welcomes Aas with a goal. This time Pakarinen made the pass and Orpana finished it off with a tap-in at 14:59. The pair clicked again early in the third to make it 5-1. This time Orpana got to a loose puck behind the goal and got it front to Pakarinen, who lifted it in from close range.

Juhoo Piiparinen added a sixth goal as he cut around Simen Stove Braastein and roofed a shot over Aas at 11:28, and Lasse Boelius added a power-play goal three minutes later.