In Finland's camp, the World Cup semi-final loss was taken hard.
Gothenburg
Young Lions captain Jere Lassila stepped in front of the media with his head down and his hair in his eyes.
Finland had just lost the World Cup semi-final to the USA 2–3 after dramatic stages. The USA continues to Friday's final against Sweden and Finland to the bronze medal game against the Czech Republic.
The loss was especially hard. You could see from the captain's sign language that a rollercoaster of emotions was swirling inside.
“I can't really find the words. The fuck is pretty big,” Lassila said and chewed her lips.
“We all put in the effort, but that wasn't enough.”
The match the final solution was a penalty five minutes before the end.
Finland's credit defender Kasper Kulonummi was ordered to the ice shelf on very easy grounds. Of the ensuing superiority Cutter Gauthier scored the winning goal for the USA.
Kulonummi was sentenced for hooking, even though he played with the racket in one hand and there was no hooking movement in the situation even based on the decelerations.
Lassila first thought for a long time about how she would respond to the exciting situation.
“I better not say anything about the cold. Everyone can watch it. Referees are there to blow the whistle.”
“I'm not going to comment on that. We had 60 minutes to win the game and we couldn't. It didn't solve one situation. We could have done things better before that,” Lassila said.
Finland started the semi-final fantastically and took a 2–0 lead. The grip slipped, however, and the USA leveled in the second set.
“The start was good, but in the second set the game started to run away. We went along too much with what the USA wanted. That's how they got places and the goals they needed.”
“The third set was again good play from us, but the result was now that. It's difficult at this point to start analyzing what else was in it,” said Lassila.
There was a huge difference between the teams in special situation play. The USA scored two goals from its two superiority. Finland's superiority remained at zero.
“They scored well when they got the upper hand. We knew what they were trying to do, but they scored so many high-quality goals”, lamented Lassila.
“We were also able to create the necessary positions, but these games are decided by whether the puck is between the posts or not.”
Despite the heavy disappointment, Lassila has assured that Nuoret Leijonat is ready to play for the World Cup medal against the Czech Republic tomorrow.
“Tomorrow comes quickly. Everyone has to prepare themselves. I have to talk with the team more at the hotel. Tomorrow comes quickly.”
The puck will fall on the ice in the Scandinavium hall at 16:00 Finnish time.
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