Helsinki Division
Preliminary Round Game:
United States : Finland
5 : 0
The United States surprised the Finnish and defeated them 5-0, but that score does not reflect how the Fins normally play. They had a disappointing game and the United States will not be taking them lightly in the Quarter-Finals.
United States played a strong preliminary round but they did have a few bad periods throughout the first 7 games. They started the World Championships off great by defeating France 7-2 and then defeating Canada in overtime 5-4. They had a rough third game as Slovakia defeated the United States 4-2. USA rebounded against Belarus and won that game 5-3. The 5th game may have been the most disappointing game for the United States as Kazakhstan was able to take them to overtime where Justin Faulk bailed them out with only 22 seconds left in overtime to defeat the Kazakhs. They did win the game, yes, but Kazakhstan was the worse team in the World Championships with a record of 0-0-1-6. Again, after a disappointing game the United States were able to rebound and dominated the host team; Finland in a 5-0 victory. The United States finished 16 points, sitting second in the Helsinki division behind Canada.
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Finland started off the preliminaries very impressive with back-to-back 1-0 wins over Belarus and Slovakia. Finland continued to roll through their 3rd and 4th games with a 5-2 victory over the Swiss and a 7-1 win against France. Finland was looking as a favorite to repeat again after they started off 4-0 but they had yet to face Canada and the United States. Finland's 5th game was against the Canadians. The Finns started out strong and were up 2-0 after the first period, but they began to self-destruct in the 2nd period which led to tied 3-3 game through two periods. Canada continued to dominate Finland in the third period and the Canadians won the game 5-3. Finland's miserable play continued into the next game as they lost to the Americans 5-0. Finland managed to end the preliminaries on a positive note with a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan. With their home fan support the Finnish ended up third in the Helsinki division with 15 points.
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This game will really be fast paced as both teams have a lot of skill and speed up front but they play a different defensive game. The Americans are very offensive minded on the blueline with the likes of; Justin Faulk, Alex Goligoski, Cam Fowler and Jack Johnson and the Finnish defenseman are more of a shutdown team on the back-end.
Who to Watch:
Justin Faulk - Just finished rookie season in the NHL for Carolina, looking very good for the United States
Max Pacioretty - has had the best offensive output so far for an American at the World Championships that we have seen in a long while
Kari Lehtonen/Petri Vehanen - The Finnish goaltending tandem is in an interesting situation as Lehtonen was slotted in to be the number one goalie but Vehanen has outplayed him thus far
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