Finland advances to the finals and The World Games – 10.12.2016

Sweden´s opponents in the finals - Finland after a victory over Czech Republic 4-3, (2-0, 1-2, 1-1).

Buzzing atmosphere in the Arena Riga to start off the 2nd game of semi-finals, this time between Finland and Czech Republic.  Both teams wanted to be passive aggressive early on. While the Czechs had to defend a lot in the quarter period, Finland couldn´t manage too many scoring chances, while the Czechs had their chances on their rare counter attacks. 10:43 into the 1st period, the Czech defense was finally cracked by the Finnish team, as they got the ball past the goalie from the side of the net. 14:31 in and it turned into a double lead for the Finns. The score remained the same after first twenty minutes of play.

2nd period of the game and the Finns started off tremedously, but Czech Republic finally showed signs of offense. Their pressure started to be noticeable as the period went on and the Finns often had to play the ball in their defensive zone. Mid-way through the game the score remained the same, 2-0 to Finland. As the Czechs had taken the advantage on the field and massively slowed down the game to their advantage, 12:34 into the 2nd period they got their first goal of the game. The Finns weren´t happy with that and they got a goal back just 14 seconds later.  The Czech team wasn´t going to give up and they came together to score another one.

Finland got a two minute penalty after the 2nd period, meaning that Czech Republic would start the 3rd with a man advantage. The Finnish box play was top notch, not allowing the Czechs to create many chances. The Czechs blew a 100% chance to score and a few minutes later Finland did the same.  Czech Republic was doing their best to net one as soon as possible to reach a tie and they did it, with 5 minutes 20 seconds left in the 3rd period. However it was no fairytale for the Czechs as Finland took the game with 7 seconds left.