The semi-finals of the Ice Hockey World Championship held in Finland these days took place today, 28 May. Sport24 summarizes these matches.
Finland 4:3 USA
The opponents in the first semifinals met in the group stage – then the host of the tournament came out stronger. The Finns dominated throughout the meeting, leading 4:0 in the middle of the match. Not the last role in such a huge advantage of Suomi was played by the indiscipline of the Americans and the perfect draw of most of the current Olympic champions – they scored 3 out of 4 goals in numerical superiority. Interestingly, hockey players who played in the KHL last season shone in this match – Salavat striker Sakari Manninen scored 3 points, SKA defender Mikko Lehtonen scored a goal and made an assist, and Magnitogorsk goalkeeper Juho Olkinuora was in the goal. However, the central point of the meeting was not the successful performance of the Finnish hockey players, but the abundance of power struggles and suspensions – winning 35 penalty minutes for both teams.
Honestly, no team could afford it in matches with so many violations. And so it happened: the audience saw only 4 suspensions in this match, so the outcome of the meeting was decided not by the game in equal compositions, but by another nuance. We’re talking about the defensive play – this position before the start of the semifinals was the most problematic for the USA team: former Rangers coach David Quinn managed to get only 2 pairs of defenders, so the coaching team sent forward Sam Lafferty and Riley Barber to the third double. And surprisingly, thanks to the actions of the defenders of the Americans, the score in the match opened precisely – Nate Schmidt scored from the blue line, and Alkinuora could not cope with the shot of the Winnipeg defender.
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The USA team was exactly 15 minutes ahead. The Finns did not allow them any more in this match: at the end of the first period, the defender again scored, but this time with a Finnish passport – Miro Heiskanen evened the score due to cool individual moves. The backstroke was incredible.
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Moreover, center Sakari Manninen took up the matter and confirmed the reputation of Suomi’s top scorer: Jeremy Sveiman had no chance against Salavat Yulaev’s laser wrist leader.
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2 minutes later the shot continued – Sami Vatanen countered Sean Farrell’s puck with a beautiful individual pass. The host did not give the opponent the slightest opportunity to feel safe and change the course of the meeting.
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Everything was decided in the third period: a precise shot from Joel Army carried the Finnish team to their third consecutive World Cup final. Current Olympic champions have excellent chances of achieving double gold and adding world championship gold to Olympic victory. And the Americans were behind for the 11th time in a row in the semifinals of the World Cup. Stars and Stripes last took gold in this tournament 62 years ago – in 1960.
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Canada 6:1 Czech Republic
Neither team was too impressed in the group stage. Among all serious opponents, the Czech national team defeated only the Americans, while losing to the Swedes, Austrians and Finns. And the Canadians were defeated by the Swiss, who gained favorite status during the tournament and lost to the Danes. Such a resume before the decisive matches of the world championship. However, the founders of hockey managed to surprise at the quarter-final stage: in a dramatic battle against the Swedish national team, Claude Julien’s men first scored 2 goals in 30 seconds and leveled the score a few minutes before the end of regular time. After the meeting, he won in overtime. Of course, after these events, the psychological advantage was on the side of the reigning world champions, but in the squads of the Czechs there are enough talented players who can balance this advantage and turn the pendulum in their favor.
Kari Jalonen’s men tried to get their opponent out of the saddle right at the start of the first quarter – David Kreychi kissed the puck heartily and polished Chris Dredger.
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In the quarterfinals, everyone saw the strength of the Canadians’ character, so there was no doubt that the missed puck would certainly not have a fatal effect on them. And Dylan Cozens once again proved that Claude Julien’s team is determined to fight to the end with 33 seconds left in the first twenty minutes.
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And towards the middle of the second period, the reigning world champion knocked out his opponent in just a minute: Adam Lowry and Kent Johnson scored by 81 seconds.
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Two more minutes later, Matthew Barzal strengthened his team’s advantage and made the Czechs forget they were once ahead – the shot from the Islanders star was a feast for the eyes. Everything gradually went to the fact that the Canadians would again fight for gold.
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And in the final period, the guys with a maple leaf on their chests inflicted a uniform defeat on the opponent – the pucks of Sillinger and Cozens finally finished off Pastrnak and the company and determined the winner of this meeting. In the final, the Canadian team will meet the Finns – it was difficult to imagine a more sensible and fair final.
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