Finland overcomes penalty trouble to beat U.S. for world junior gold

VANCOUVER — Finland danced with the devil but still managed to waltz home with a gold medal after defeating the United States 3-2 Saturday night in the championship game of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Staying out of the penalty box was one of the Finland’s priorities going into the final. That plan was derailed by a string of penalties that gave the Americans five power-play chances.

Solid penalty killing and an outstanding performance by goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left the U.S. 0 for 5 with the man advantage.

“The whole team felt ready for that,” said Luukkonen, who was named the top goaltender at the tournament after making 25 saves in the final.

“We took some penalties, but it came from the excitement and the nerves of the final game. I think we got hold of ourselves (after) the second period. We fought through that, so that was good.”

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The Finns were called for 30 minutes in penalties during their 4-1 loss to the U.S. on New Year’s Eve in the round-robin portion of the tournament. The Americans scored one goal on the power play.

Before Saturday’s final, Finnish coach Jussi Ahokas warned his team about the dangers of taking penalties. After the victory he could only laugh and praise the effectiveness of his penalty killing.

“Well, it worked,” he said. “It worked well. That’s the biggest thing.”

Finland’s best penalty killer was Luukkonen, a 2017 second-round draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres who currently plays for the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL.

Playing shorthanded in the first period he robbed Jack Hughes in the slot. In the second period he was like a wall when the Finns were called for three penalties in just over eight minutes.

American forward Josh Norris said the Finns adapted to the U.S. power play.

“I think they pre-scouted us well,” said Norris, who tied the game 2-2 at 8:47 of the third period. “We weren’t able to get many good looks through. We had some good ones in the first, but they kind of shut down our momentum and that was the difference.”

Finland’s penalty-killing was ranked seventh of out 10 teams heading into the final, having allowed five goals on 22 short-handed situations for a 77.27 percentage.

The U.S. power play was ranked No. 1, scoring seven goals on 22 attempts for a 31.82 percentage.

American forward Ryan Poehling said it came down to execution and dealing with a hot goaltender.

“Going into the game we had the best power play,” said Poehling. “If you watch film on our power play for this game it’s not like we couldn’t do anything. It’s just their goalie played really well against us.

“Sometimes that’s just hockey and it happens.”

Norris agreed Luukkonen was the difference.,

“He’s a good goalie, it’s no secret,” he said. “He’s one of the best goalies in the tournament. He made some good saves early.”

Jim Morris, The Canadian Press