Finland mulling changes after 'tough day' for Saros in opening 4 Nations loss

MONTREAL -- Juuse Saros had a tough initial outing at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and Finland may be reevaluating its goaltending situation before it plays again this weekend.

Saros allowed six goals on 32 shots in Finland’s 6-1 loss to the United States at Bell Centre on Thursday.

“Yeah, yeah of course we need to think about that,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “It was a tough day for ‘Jus.’ He was really good through the first 40 minutes, but I think we need to analyze this game and let’s make those decisions tomorrow or Saturday.”

Finland plays rival Sweden at Bell Centre on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) before the tournament continues in Boston on Monday.

Saros did hold his own through the first two periods, when he allowed two goals on 20 shots. Things fell apart in the third period, however, when he allowed four goals on 12 shots, including two quick ones within the first 26 seconds of the period.

U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal 15 seconds into the third, and forward Jake Guentzel followed with a goal 11 seconds later to give the Americans a 4-1 lead.

Asked if he thought about pulling Saros after those two quick goals, Pennanen said, “I spoke with our goalie coach (Aka Naykki) and we made the decision to continue with Juuse.”

Saros is 11-23-6 with a 2.95 goals-against average, .899 save percentage and four shutouts in 41 starts for the Nashville Predators this season.

“It’s obviously tough when your team lets in six,” Finland forward Joel Armia said. “It felt like a lot of their goals, I don’t know if he could’ve done much different. Yeah, unfortunate to give up six.”

If Finland makes a change, they could go with Kevin Lankinen, who backed up Saros on Thursday. It’s a role Lankinen knows well, having done the same with the Nashville Predators the previous two seasons.

After the Predators chose not to sign Lankinen, he got an opportunity with the Vancouver Canucks, who signed him to a one-year, $875,000 contract on Sept. 21. He’s done well in his new surroundings, going 19-8-7 with a 2.53 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and four shutouts in 34 games (32 starts) for the Canucks.

The Finns also have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He’s 18-16-4 with a 3.02 GAA, .895 save percentage and two shutouts in 39 starts with the Buffalo Sabres this season.

It was a tough night for Finland, which played a strong game against the U.S. through the first two periods before things went awry. Finland will weigh its goaltending options, but regardless of who’s in net, it'll look to be better on Saturday.

“I think we either win or we learn, and we learned a lot from the game we played today,” Finland captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We learned from the good things we did and, obviously, not great things. So, we’ll watch some video tomorrow and the next day and prepare for a game.”