Jan 5, 2016
WJC Ice Chips: Finland, Russia battle for gold
It all comes down to this: Russia and Finland for the gold medal at the World Junior Championship.
TSN.ca Staff
![Russia celebrates, The Canadian Press Russia celebrates](/polopoly_fs/1.418206.1452001415!/fileimage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/russia-celebrates.jpg)
It all comes down to this: Russia and Finland for the gold medal at the World Junior Championship. "This is what I've been dreaming about all my life," said Russia's Radel Fazleev, who plays for Calgary in the WHL. "This is what I've been working for. To get here and to win a gold medal. I'll do anything to win a gold medal." What would a title on home ice mean to Kasperi Kapanen? "Everything. We didn't play that well last year and now that we're home in front of friends and family, it would be the greatest thing ever." The Finns are drawing energy from the capacity crowds who have packed Hartwall Arena. "I can't describe it," Kapanen said. "It's nuts. It gets me going and gets me emotional." How special is this Finnish team? "It's special," he said, "but we have one more to go so I'll answer that question after the gold-medal game."
Finland is the highest scoring team in the tournament, but even though they only scored two goals yesterday the consensus after the game was that they had put forward their best performance. "This game was different than the others," said goalie Kaapo Kahkonen. "We didn't score as much, but this was the most balanced 60 minutes we've played in the whole tournament." Mikko Rantanen agreed. "This was the best game of our tournament, allowing just one goal against Sweden," Finland's captain said. "We have to build on that. This is the first game we played the whole 60 minutes the way we need to play if we want to win games." Patrik Laine had guaranteed victory against the Swedes, but was held in check going without a goal for the first time in the tournament. "If my line's not going to score, some other guys will score," he said. As for his guarantee? "I always keep my promises," he said with a big grin.
Rantanen and Kapanen had both said they needed to chip in more offensively. And coach Jukka Jalonen had made it clear his team had to stop relying so much on the top line, which includes two draft-eligible players (Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi). Well, against the Swedes, both Rantanen and Kapanen had two assists with Antti Kalapudas and Roope Hintz scoring the goals. All four are 19-year-old players. "It was great that our big guys really stepped up," Jalonen said. "It was huge for us. Some guys stepped up and maybe in the gold-medal game some others will." Rantanen said it was now or never for him and some of his older teammates. "We had a pretty tough tournament so we just talked to each other and said that we had to get going and play to our strengths." Added Kapanen, "Everyone knew they were going to play hard on that (Sebastian Aho) line so we just stepped it up with our line and had a great game."
The championship game could feature an unlikely goalie showdown. After watching Alexander Georgiev play most of the tournament, including the quarterfinals, Ilya Samsonov got the call against the Americans and was stellar turning aside 26 of 27 shots. "Unbelievable," said Fazleev when asked to describe his goalie's effort. "He played only one game in this tournament before and he went out today and did a really good job." Meanwhile, Kahkonen has been solid since coming into the quarterfinal game in the second period. "It was unbelievable how he came in against Canada," said Rantanen. "He made two game savers in the first two minutes. Again, unbelievable against Sweden (stopping 21 of 22 shots). We'll have a good goalie in the gold medal game."
This will be the second meeting between the two teams at this year's tournament with Russia winning a thriller 6-4 in the preliminary round on Dec. 28 erasing an early 3-1 deficit. Special teams were decisive with Russia scoring three power play goals and a shorthanded marker. Vehvilainen and Georgiev started that game. "We played them already: big, fast, skilled guys, but we know how to play against them," Fazleev said. "It will be a fun game."
Fazleev has become an unofficial English-language spokesman for the Russian team at the tournament with many of his teammates choosing not to do press. Ivan Provorov, who plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings, has declined requests for an interview. According to a team official, the Philadelphia Flyers prospect is superstitious and doesn't want to do any media until after the final game of the tournament.
Russia vs Finland - 1:30PM - Gold Medal Game
RUS beat FIN 6-4 in pre-lim round
Teams have split last 4 meetings
RUS (won silver in 2015):
won a medal in 5 straight WJC, 1-G, 2-S, 2-B
have 3 right handed shots in line up
7 players on roster play in CHL
Kaprizov had 1G, 1A in game vs FIN Dec 28th
best PK 18/19, 5/18 on PP
Korshkov (2G, 6A)
FIN (lost to SWE in QF in 2015):
one medal past 9 years, G-2014, finished 7th in 2013&2015
Players of note: Kapanen-TOR, Rantanen-COL
most goals (31) and best PP 11/27, 14/21 on PK
Puljujarvi 5G, 10A leads WJC in assists and points