GDT: Finland vs Sweden (U18 Semis)

[Mestaruus]

Well, whichever way you look at the penalty. Its clear that the refs have had curious thresholds throughout the tournament. Tight game as expected. Swedens depth decided the game IMO. Though this could’ve easily gone the other way. As the finns have said this game will come down to goaltending. Though Leinonen apart from an error wasn’t that bad really.

Either way always love the games against Finland. Even if SVT tries their very best to ruin them.

Peace love and NATO.

Hävelid was slightly better yes. Leinonen's best game of the tournament but it had one cardinal mistake but few good stops as well. I'm hoping that the other goalie, Kokko gets to start against Czech tomorrow, which is usually the case for bronze games anyways.

 

[Elias40]

I thought the power play would be for Finland, and only then did the referees disqualify Kemell. But my opinion is that the exclusion should not be and the match should go to overtime.

Finland won overwhelmingly on shots, but the difference was only in the third period, which is logical because they lost by a goal. But Sweden often makes one mistake against Finland ... it defends the lead so much that it is not interested in scoring the second goal and deciding the match. It repeats itself against Finland every match, it was most visible at the Olympics. Two thirds was an excellent performance, it could have been more than one goal, but Finland was great and deservedly leveled.

I wish Finland a bronze medal tomorrow.

 

[Mestaruus]

I wish Finland a bronze medal tomorrow.

It's going to be hard against a well rested Czech team, but I liked few of the Finnish players' post game interviews. They both said that they want that bronze. They weren't crying or anything like that. They were just disappointed.

 

[SantosHalper]

Unbealiable... Closing moments and ref wants attention, and completely shits his pants. Best 60 minutes from team Finland in this tournament and refs has to ruin it. Swedish coaching staff should buy them a beer's. First time since women's 2019 WHC that IIHF officials screws Finland, i guess it was the time then.

Congrats team Sweden, silver medal is always a good achievement.

 

[illone84]

Unbealiable... Closing moments and ref wants attention, and completely shits his pants. Best 60 minutes from team Finland in this tournament and refs has to ruin it. Swedish coaching staff should buy them a beer's. First time since women's 2019 WHC that IIHF officials screws Finland, i guess it was the time then.

Congrats team Sweden, silver medal is always a good achievement.

drink some koskenkorva

 

[ijuka]

On the PP, Kiviharju should be on PP1. Kiviharju ties Kulonummi in points anyway, while being on the same D pairing and without PP1 time. PP1 plays like 1:40 and PP2 like 20 seconds. Also, Kulonummi's very uncreative on PP and can't manipulate the PK formation nearly as well as Kiviharju.

 

[Elias40]

It's going to be hard against a well rested Czech team, but I liked few of the Finnish players' post game interviews. They both said that they want that bronze. They weren't crying or anything like that. They were just disappointed.

If Finland does not give the same stupid things as Canada / USA, then the chances of winning are not small. Kulich and Salé have, I think, 80% of all their points from power play, they don't dominate at 5vs5 and that's Finland's chance.

If my team loses the semifinals by a goal and the next day they play against an opponent who has more time to rest, I hate these matches. But Finland has more depth and if the players have enough mental strength, they can win.

 

[Mestaruus]

If Finland does not give the same stupid things as Canada / USA, then the chances of winning are not small. Kulich and Salé have, I think, 80% of all their points from power play, they don't dominate at 5vs5 and that's Finland's chance.

If my team loses the semifinals by a goal and the next day they play against an opponent who has more time to rest, I hate these matches. But Finland has more depth and if the players have enough mental strength, they can win.

Yeah I wish that we could have one break day between semi round and medal round. They should have the game days on Friday & Sunday or on Thursday & Saturday. They could start the tournament 1 day before to be able to do this. The problem is that they really want to have games for Saturday, but Friday is kind of part of the weekend as well so I think that it would be rather easy to fix that.

It's interesting to see who Finland puts in goal. If they put Leinonen in goal again, I don't see that he will have another good game in back to back days. He had a quite good game today. So if he is in goal again I think that the win goes to Czech. It would be a bizarre decision for Finland not to change goalie in my opinion.

 

[AB13]

Unbealiable... Closing moments and ref wants attention, and completely shits his pants. Best 60 minutes from team Finland in this tournament and refs has to ruin it. Swedish coaching staff should buy them a beer's. First time since women's 2019 WHC that IIHF officials screws Finland, i guess it was the time then.

Congrats team Sweden, silver medal is always a good achievement.

Silver medal? You don’t know that. About a 55% likelihood of that probably.

 

[ijuka]

Silver medal? You don’t know that. About a 55% likelihood of that probably.

Chances of Sweden losing to USA are like 95%. Just like Finland losing to USA, except that might be 98% instead.

 

[absolute garbage]

I thought that was a very weak penalty. Almost felt like holding the stick more than a hook. The swede sold it excellently and ref completely bought it. Unfortunate. Also the following goal was very unlucky. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Kiviharju is the most impressive defense prospect I think I've ever seen. Just how smooth, calm, collected, poised and heads-up he is. It's crazy. The way he sees and anticipates the game, passes and makes plays, it's extraordinary. Never seen that from a defense prospect before.

 

[EK47]

I have loads of respect for you. Always thinking what you're saying and even though your team wins, you still have a lot of respect for Finland and Finns in general.

Thank you

Well,
Cheers mate!

 

[Mestaruus]

Silver medal? You don’t know that. About a 55% likelihood of that probably.

I think that it will be USA's most low scoring game of the tournament because Hävelid is the best goalie of the tournament and Swedish team defense is rather good in supporting him, so maybe it will be 3-2 or 3-1 for USA. I'm hoping all the best for Sweden though because I don't like this USDP thing where those kids played together for the entire season. For that reason I want Sweden to win. It's rare that I want Sweden to win in hockey. That's just not me, but this USDP advantage disgusts me. Good for those American players' individual development but it's very bad for the youth hockey tournaments competition wise.

Looking at the small margins, USA has little bit of rest advantage and they played on that arena for the entire tournament. Crowd will have some Swedes there and not many Americans so maybe that helps Sweden a bit.

 

[Mestaruus]

I thought that was a very weak penalty. Almost felt like holding the stick more than a hook. The swede sold it excellently and ref completely bought it. Unfortunate. Also the following goal was very unlucky. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Kiviharju is the most impressive defense prospect I think I've ever seen. Just how smooth, calm, collected, poised and heads-up he is. It's crazy. The way he sees and anticipates the game, passes and makes plays, it's extraordinary. Never seen that from a defense prospect before.

Finland never lead the game in scores. Sometimes the margins turn this way as a result of that.

 

[Elias40]

Yeah I wish that we could have one break day between semi round and medal round. They should have the game days on Friday & Sunday or on Thursday & Saturday. They could start the tournament 1 day before to be able to do this. The problem is that they really want to have games for Saturday, but Friday is kind of part of the weekend as well so I think that it would be rather easy to fix that.

It's interesting to see who Finland puts in goal. If they put Leinonen in goal again, I don't see that he will have another good game in back to back days. He had a quite good game today. So if he is in goal again I think that the win goes to Czech. It would be a bizarre decision for Finland not to change goalie in my opinion.

The format of the tournament is known in advance, so there will always be one team at an advantage. It is strange that the teams do not protest more than this, a case in point was a bronze medal match in Beijing. Sweden lost to Russia at the last possible moment and no longer had the strength for another match. But beware! This is no excuse for losing 0-4, Slovakia that day was great and Sweden didn't have a chance to do anything with the result. Add to that the lack of regeneration, which is significantly more difficult for the second team.

It was interesting to see how physically Finland played today. Usually the finishing fights belong to Sweden and Finland more holding the puck and trying to combine and find a way to the goal. I liked Ronni, he already scored a nice goal in the group and he could still be seen today. Maybe sometimes it would be better to play a power play on the other side than to pass on one-timer to Kemell..

 

[Mestaruus]

The format of the tournament is known in advance, so there will always be one team at an advantage. It is strange that the teams do not protest more than this, a case in point was a bronze medal match in Beijing. Sweden lost to Russia at the last possible moment and no longer had the strength for another match. But beware! This is no excuse for losing 0-4, Slovakia that day was great and Sweden didn't have a chance to do anything with the result. Add to that the lack of regeneration, which is significantly more difficult for the second team.

It was interesting to see how physically Finland played today. Usually the finishing fights belong to Sweden and Finland more holding the puck and trying to combine and find a way to the goal. I liked Ronni, he already scored a nice goal in the group and he could still be seen today. Maybe sometimes it would be better to play a power play on the other side than to pass on one-timer to Kemell..

It sucks but in the end seed #1 team gets most of the advantages usually so any team can sort of control their own fate as long as they win enough games and score as many goals as possible, despite of the group drawings which usually isn't equal.

True. That PP became pretty predictable.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

nice one boys

 

[erikhamren]

But, but, b-b-bbut.. Finland is better... Buhuu

 

[Eye of Ra]

Finland was better. They won shots 42-23. Created way more dangerous chances. Regarding the penalty in the end. Maybe it was not a correct call. But maybe it was. We can only speculate.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Is Carlsson out for the tournament? Didnt play today either, Salmonsson will be back atleast

 

[Preds666]

Great game between two pretty much equal opponents. Hugo Hävelid was really good in net and Sweden saw first-class defensive efforts from many forwards, especially Bystedt and Östlund. Also starting to like the role players (Rudslätt, Born for example) a bit more. I get the feeling that Rudslätt has some extra potential. For a bottom line player he has good speed, puck control and creativity.

As for the Kemell penalty, I do think that is a penalty. However, refs usually let stuff like that go in the last couple of minutes of a game, so was kind of surprised they called it. They did allow some borderline Swedish interference calls.

So, as for the final day of the tournament... I am predicting
5-2 USA win
4-2 FIN win

 

[theslatcher]

Is Carlsson out for the tournament? Didnt play today either, Salmonsson will be back atleast

He's been a GTD so we'll know righg before the finals.

 

[Mestaruus]

As for the Kemell penalty, I do think that is a penalty. However, refs usually let stuff like that go in the last couple of minutes of a game, so was kind of surprised they called it. They did allow some borderline Swedish interference calls.

It was sort of like payback for the refs calling and doing some favors for Finland in the Canada match. Finland got so many power plays at the end of the 3rd period so team Finland was able to turn that 5-3 lead to a 5-5 really quickly. It's only fair that it went that way now I guess. They even penalized the exact same player with 2 minute penalty, Kemell who was the hat trick hero and OT scorer in that Finland vs Canada game. How ironic.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Missed the game because of the Vappu. Sweden won so they deserved the win. Go for the gold now boys!

 

[VictorLustig]

Finland was better. They won shots 42-23. Created way more dangerous chances. Regarding the penalty in the end. Maybe it was not a correct call. But maybe it was. We can only speculate.

At this level, shots will always be heavily in favour of the team that’s down a goal in a close game.