U18: 2018 U18 WJC's Magnitogorsk & Chelyabinsk Russia.

[Teemu]

Don't think Wahlstrom will forget that one any time soon

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Congrats to Finland. Special teams can win you games. Jack Hughes top foward.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

 

[Petri1981]

Another junior gold for Finland. Wow. They were by far the best team in the tournament.

 

[JLFGoNicsGo11]

Good game Finland ! They deserved that win . Cam York made a stupid play that led to that shorty , Wahlstrom maybe the most overrated player in the 2018 draft

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Thanks for Russian hockey federation to hosting great U18 WJC tournament.
Despite of Russia's elimination in quarterfinals there was many Russian fans and kids who were cheering for Finland.

It was great to see today's gold medal game vs USA in the stands was some local Russian fan to keep the cheering message which was written in Finnish. That was very nicely done.
Hopefully Chelyabinsk can host world juniors or IIHF men's worlds sometimes in the future.

 

[Vohaul]

Hell yeah, gold medal for Suomi. Feels good. The team played well throughout the tournament and deserved this.

To Be fair USA played really well in the final too and they had a really skilled team. Could have gone either way..

 

[behemolari]

Congrats to Finland. Special teams can win you games. Jack Hughes top foward.

Kotkaniemi & Nordgren top forwards by fair margin, or did Hughes won you title

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Kotkaniemi & Nordgren top forwards by fair margin, or did Hughes won you title

Not a “fair” nor a “far” margin. One player doesn’t win a tournament.

 

[THE JAM]

Congrats, Winland!

 

[Habs76]

No joke, I had this game recorded, and when I went to watch it, my PVR for some reason kept cutting out chunks of the game (like 1-2 minute chunks). I ended up missing goals 2-5. I'm kinda pissed

 

[Kaako Kappo]

Thanks for Russian hockey federation to hosting great U18 WJC tournament.
Despite of Russia's elimination in quarterfinals there was many Russian fans and kids who were cheering for Finland.

It was great to see today's gold medal game vs USA in the stands was some local Russian fan to keep the cheering message which was written in Finnish. That was very nicely done.
Hopefully Chelyabinsk can host world juniors or IIHF men's worlds sometimes in the future.

Yeah, i'll cheer for Russia next time Finland is out of a tournament.

 

[RageQuit77]

Yeah, i'll cheer for Russia next time Finland is out of a tournament.

Yep. Me too. Totally regardless how hard it can be sometimes in some other context(s).

Class act.

 

[behemolari]

Not a “fair” nor a “far” margin. One player doesn’t win a tournament.

sure dog, top players made a sh goal and won the game

 

[Whalers Fan]

Congrats to Finland. It was a well -played game by both sides. Team USA let one get away, though, between that shorthanded game-winning goal (York never should have shot that puck into the Finnish player that started the breakaway) and Wahlstrom missing that wide open net at the end of the game.

 

[BusQuets]

Thanks for Russian hockey federation to hosting great U18 WJC tournament.
Despite of Russia's elimination in quarterfinals there was many Russian fans and kids who were cheering for Finland.

It was great to see today's gold medal game vs USA in the stands was some local Russian fan to keep the cheering message which was written in Finnish. That was very nicely done.
Hopefully Chelyabinsk can host world juniors or IIHF men's worlds sometimes in the future.

I'm sure the political climate had more impact for Russians cheering team Finland than the Finnish team itself.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

sure dog, top players made a sh goal and won the game

And still didn’t win MVP.

 

[RageQuit77]

I'm sure the political climate had more impact for Russians cheering team Finland than the Finnish team itself.

Yes, that is maybe the reason. It's easier to cheer for peaceful European neighboring country (with most stabile 1300 km borderline of whole federation, shared history, a team playing in KHL, deep and complex cultural connections etc.) then for faraway country across-the-seas in an era of international twitter-diplomacy and cold war 2.0 arms race, I don't know. Class act anyways.

From Finnish perspective, we aren't used to expect that Russian Hockey audiences would root for us. Like never.

Maybe it was just about "to pick lesser evil" from Russian perspective.

 

[CPFC]

From Finnish perspective, we aren't used to expect that Russian Hockey audiences would root for us. Like never.

My personal experience is that Russian hockey fans in general are quite sympathetic towards Finland, while Canada (and USA to a lesser lextent) is of course the team to beat.

 

[RageQuit77]

My personal experience is that Russian hockey fans in general are quite sympathetic towards Finland, while Canada is of course the team to beat.

I don't know about exact details and nuances in that nowadays, but The Red Machine was one of primary mentors in a process of the rise of Finnish hockey. Would be happy thing to hear about these things from Russian hockey fans.

And Canada is of course the team to beat for everyone. For Finns losing a game to Team Russia isn't anywhere near as bad thing as it is to lose to our beloved enemy, "big brother" Sweden.

 

[Mestaruus]

Kotkaniemi & Nordgren top forwards by fair margin, or did Hughes won you title

I think they should look at the team records more. Team with zero losses vs a team who ended up with 3 losses after the final. Then you select more than one player to the all-star 6 from that team with zero losses. It would make more sense to me and I think usually in IIHF tournaments they are selected that way.

Could be that the selections were made before the game ended. That kind of explains it I guess.

 

[Mestaruus]

Yes, that is maybe the reason. It's easier to cheer for peaceful European neighboring country (with most stabile 1300 km borderline of whole federation, shared history, a team playing in KHL, deep and complex cultural connections etc.) then for faraway country across-the-seas in an era of international twitter-diplomacy and cold war 2.0 arms race, I don't know. Class act anyways.

From Finnish perspective, we aren't used to expect that Russian Hockey audiences would root for us. Like never.

Maybe it was just about "to pick lesser evil" from Russian perspective.

Same reason why Chinese and Japanese love Finnish F1 drivers like Räikkönen and Häkkinen because it's so hard to cheer for many of the other countries the drivers represent. From top teams' drivers there aren't many to choose for anyways so Finland is the easy choice to cheer for.

 

[Albatros]

Don't be silly, ordinary people aren't obsessed with politics. Besides there was plenty of support in the earlier games as well, not just the final. The Finnish media noticed it too already early in the tournament:

Tsheljabinskin MM-katsomon mystiset Pikkuleijona-fanit paljastuivat venäläisiksi – miksi he kannattavat Suomea?

 

[Esko6]

I really loved the Russian spectators. Usually U18 is played for empty arenas, but this time there was a nice amount of people in every game and the fans also supported teams other than Russia. A great U18 tournament!

 

[Yakushev72]

I really loved the Russian spectators. Usually U18 is played for empty arenas, but this time there was a nice amount of people in every game and the fans also supported teams other than Russia. A great U18 tournament!

Mostly, it was just families with their kids out to watch some good hockey and have some fun. It would have been nice if Russia had advanced, but it looked like the people of Chelyabinsk enjoyed the experience.