Finland vs USA. Who will win in the battle of the favorites of group B?
The hosts of the tournament, the national team of Finland, on May 17 will hold a key match of the group stage against the American team. The meeting will take place in Tampere, on the ice of the Tampere Dec arena.
Slowly, step by step, Finnish ice hockey is becoming a leader on the world stage. In the last three seasons alone, the Finnish team has won gold and silver at the World Championships, as well as an unconditional triumph at the Beijing Winter Olympics, where the Russian team was beaten in the final. And now the Finns are no longer expected to achieve other results than winning the home tournament. There are all preconditions for this. Jukka Jalonen is still at the helm of the national team, consisting of 17 hockey players who took gold in Olympic Beijing at once, and from across the ocean a pinpoint reinforcement has arrived in the person of forwards Armia, Granlund and Lammikko.
In the opening game of the championship, the Finnish team, as expected, easily dealt with their northern neighbors - the hockey players of the Norwegian team. The Norwegians almost survived in the first period, but still missed a goal in the locker room. The Finns scored Pesonen. In the future, the Finnish team confidently controlled the course of the match, scoring two more unanswered goals in the remaining two periods. Rayala, Bjorninen, Armia and Sallinen scored goals. A confident 5-0 victory, and one of the favorites of the tournament shows its playing power already in the opening match.
USA
The American team, rather, by tradition, before the start of each major tournament, is ranked among the favorites, but in fact, the Stars and Stripes won their last gold at the World Championships back in 1960. The most that the Americans have since achieved is seven bronze medals, with the last time the US team finished in third place last year at the World Championships in Latvia.
Judging by the line-up that will play at the current tournament in Finland, it is not necessary to wait for a qualitative breakthrough from the Americans again. Sufficiently level defense led by the Jones brothers from Chicago and a frankly faded line of attack, where representatives of the lower echelons of clubs that did not make it to the NHL playoffs are mainly gathered.
Nevertheless, in the first game of the championship, the Americans did not experience any particular problems, having dealt with the Latvian team quite easily. The fate of the match was decided after the first period, when three unanswered pucks (Barber, S. Jones, Bordelot) visited the gates of the Baltic team. In the debut of the second dvadtsatiminutki Lafferty brought the score to 4-0, after which the Americans have essentially played out the match without forcing events. All that the Latvians were honored with was to score the only puck of prestige in the third period, which had no effect on the course of the match.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Finland vs USA
FinlandSlowly, step by step, Finnish ice hockey is becoming a leader on the world stage. In the last three seasons alone, the Finnish team has won gold and silver at the World Championships, as well as an unconditional triumph at the Beijing Winter Olympics, where the Russian team was beaten in the final. And now the Finns are no longer expected to achieve other results than winning the home tournament. There are all preconditions for this. Jukka Jalonen is still at the helm of the national team, consisting of 17 hockey players who took gold in Olympic Beijing at once, and from across the ocean a pinpoint reinforcement has arrived in the person of forwards Armia, Granlund and Lammikko.
In the opening game of the championship, the Finnish team, as expected, easily dealt with their northern neighbors - the hockey players of the Norwegian team. The Norwegians almost survived in the first period, but still missed a goal in the locker room. The Finns scored Pesonen. In the future, the Finnish team confidently controlled the course of the match, scoring two more unanswered goals in the remaining two periods. Rayala, Bjorninen, Armia and Sallinen scored goals. A confident 5-0 victory, and one of the favorites of the tournament shows its playing power already in the opening match.
USA
The American team, rather, by tradition, before the start of each major tournament, is ranked among the favorites, but in fact, the Stars and Stripes won their last gold at the World Championships back in 1960. The most that the Americans have since achieved is seven bronze medals, with the last time the US team finished in third place last year at the World Championships in Latvia.
Judging by the line-up that will play at the current tournament in Finland, it is not necessary to wait for a qualitative breakthrough from the Americans again. Sufficiently level defense led by the Jones brothers from Chicago and a frankly faded line of attack, where representatives of the lower echelons of clubs that did not make it to the NHL playoffs are mainly gathered.
Nevertheless, in the first game of the championship, the Americans did not experience any particular problems, having dealt with the Latvian team quite easily. The fate of the match was decided after the first period, when three unanswered pucks (Barber, S. Jones, Bordelot) visited the gates of the Baltic team. In the debut of the second dvadtsatiminutki Lafferty brought the score to 4-0, after which the Americans have essentially played out the match without forcing events. All that the Latvians were honored with was to score the only puck of prestige in the third period, which had no effect on the course of the match.
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