End of the first period and Sweden lead 2-1, and it should have been 3-1. I'm still not certain what kept the puck out a couple of minutes before the end of the period. A fast game, both sets of players will be well knackered by the end if they keep up this pace.
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Second break now and the Swedes lead 4-3. No let up in the pace of the game.Comment
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It's live on Freesports in the UK - the Finns don't know any other way than to play at 200mph, do they?Comment
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Of course not, it's a game designed to be played at that speed anyway. Gripping game, from my perspective at least, finishing 4-4 at the hour mark. Marko Anttila's first goal in this tournament saving our bacon. I started to sweat a bit when I saw their coaches challenge,Comment
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Mertaranta's gone into hyperdrive, that can mean only one thing...Comment
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The Czechs beat Germany easily in the other quarterfinalComment
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I enjoyed that. I like Finnish hockey - mainly because of the aforementioned inability to play at anything other than hyperspeed. Kappo Kakko looks to be an amazing prospect.Comment
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I've just worked it out. The Finns have to play at high speed so that they can keep up with Mertaranta's commentary.Comment
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This year's Finnish team is the first without an NHL player for some time apparently. Good to see them playing so wellComment
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There was a great clip at the start of the two captains indulging in a bit of pushing and shoving. The Finnish captain absolutely towered over his Swedish counterpart, and the commentator goes "Antilla is 6'9", and if you don't know how much bigger than anyone that is, Ekman-Larsson is 6'2"..."Comment
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Argh... just found this thread.
Thoroughly enjoying the tournament so far - GB staying up, Slovakia's tragic late defeats, the Russians going full Poltava in the 2nd period against the Swedes.
Probably the most attention I've paid to the Worlds since 2008, when Kovalchuk did the Canadians in the final in Quebec.
Jimbo et al in Slovakia doing the IIHF pod: https://audioboom.com/channels/4993402Comment
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There's a good feeling around the Slovak team, though it would be an even better feeling if games lasted 58 minutes rather than 60. 93% of the 3,000 respondants to a poll in the Sport daily say they want Canadian coach Craig Ramsay to continue, despite the failure to earn a quarter-final place. It's a youngish team which has played exciting hockey, beaten the US, should have beaten Germany and ran Finland and Canada very close.
In GB's case, I guess it's difficult to get across to strangers to the game just how big an achievement winning one game out of seven while losing others 0-8, 0-9 and 1-7 actually is.Comment
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The first of the semi-finals features Russia versus Finland. At the first break perhaps the only surprise is that there haven't been any goals. There have been any number of chances, more so for the Russians but some for us too, but none have yet to be converted. Both goalkeepers are playing extremely well.Comment
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End of the second period and still no goals despite there having been another load of goal-scoring opportunities for both teams. The Russians, for whom only Malkin seems to be having an off day, look lethal in attack at times. They haven't had a power play yet, and with the way they're playing at the moment, I'm hoping that it stays that way.Comment
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One hell of a game finishes with a Finnish 1-0 victory. Nerve wracking right to the hooter, the last two or three minutes seemed to last for hours as the Russians threw the kitchen sink at us in a desperate effort to rescue the game.Comment
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Brilliant result. Sadly couldnt watch it live as unlike Romania Turkey is obviously geo blocked. I would be very happy if it were to be a Finland Czechia finalComment
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Brief highlights
And of Canada's much easier win over the Czechs
James, do Slovak league matches have those DJ-led "power breaks"? They are annoying as all get out.Comment
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No, no 'power breaks' in the Slovak league. I don't think the commercial potential is there, to be honest. The state broadcaster (STV) televises games in the domestic league, but the schedule is pretty irregular.
The power breaks are the one thing I won't miss about the tournament when it's gone. Based on my one visit to Kosice on the first Saturday, I can at least say that they were used for some very intensive ice-clearing. I don't know if it was more intensive that day because Ovechkin had had something to say about the quality of the ice in Bratislava the night before.
Delighted to see Finland in the final, and that was quite a game against Russia. The Czechs looked somehow lightweight against Canada. Even well into the second period, they were well ahead on shots without ever really looking threatening. The silence from their fans after Canada went 3-0 up was positively eerie.
The joint summing-up of the tournament by the IIHF and hosts is here :
https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2019/...-year-s-worlds
I might have had something to say about ticket-prices for the later stages. Cheapest seats at quarter-final games were 70 Euros, and it was noticeable that the Kosice games didn't sell out, even though one of them was Finland v Sweden, both of whom had lots of supporters in the country. The Kosice region is really quite poor and there were never going to be many neutrals ready to pay those prices. On the other hand, 10 Euros for the relegation show-downs was very decent value.
Slovakia won't get to host again for quite a while, as it's been decided that at least one arena must have a capacity of 12,000+. But the tournament is coming back to Ostrava in 2024, so I'm already looking forward to that.Comment
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Finland beat Canada in the opening game, didn't they, so I assume a Canadian coronation isn't a certainty?Comment
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Yes, it was the opening game. There is a theory that it's good to play Canada or the US first up, before they adjust to the larger rink dimensions. Slovakia beat the US later that day too.Comment
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That's a theory that I've never understood. There are any number of North Americans playing in the various European leagues who have no difficulty whatsoever in adjusting to the different rink sizes. Far more significant, in this case at least, is that the Finns had had far more ice time together prior to the championship finals than the Canadians could possibly have had. I would guess that that's also true of the Slovaks and Americans. Getting the team functioning as a unit is the most important aspect of any team sport.Originally posted by jameswba View Post
Then there's the question of the psyche. Sporting wise, Finns see themselves as inferior to Swedes, having suffered some spectacular defeats from clearly winning positions. Having said that, the widespread "oh no, we've got Sweden in the quarters, we've got no chance" of 10-25 years ago is nowhere near as bad nowadays. Nevertheless, defeating Sweden always seems to require jumping one hurdle more than anything the Swedes themselves put there. There's no such problem with anything Russian. No matter what names either team puts on the ice, the Finns will strain every sinew to beat them.
As far as the final goes, the result of the first game between Canada and Finland can be dismissed as irrelevant. Whatever advantage may have been with the Finns in that game has long since dissipated. I didn't watch the whole of their semi-final against the Czechs, but what I did watch was a pretty comprehensive demolition by the Canadians of a team that is close to a par with Finland. Canada will start as favourites -- being underdogs doesn't bother anyone over here -- but it's a one-off game, although I suspect we'll be needing another top performance from Lankinen.Comment
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I agree that time to "gel" is much more important than ice size.
The ice size argument is a relic of the early series in the USSR, when the North Americans had literally never played on rinks of that size (and when NHL rinks were a bit smaller and more irregular than they are now). Even North Americans who never played in a European league will now have played multiple tournaments on international surfaces starting from their teens.
On the other hand, the NA teams really will not have played together much at all and actually have new players arriving during the tournament after their NHL teams are eliminated from the playoffs.
The Russians were the best team "on paper" by miles. Having beaten them, the Finns have nothing to fear.Comment
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1-1 middle of 2nd period. Both teams banging away.
9:40 in between whistles - never seen that long a stretch.Comment
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Congrats Muukalainen!
Great game from Finland - they brilliantly frustrated the hell out of Canada.Comment
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There is going to be a hell of a party in Helsinki for the next few days.Comment
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