Finland searching for answers following loss to United States in 4 Nations

MONTREAL -- Finland stood toe-to-toe with the United States for two periods Thursday, following their tight-checking game plan as well as they could’ve hoped against one of the expected powerhouse teams of the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Then, it all unraveled during a four-goal U.S. third period that left Finland searching for answers following a 6-1 loss at Bell Centre.

“Obviously, a better start in the third, we needed that, but I think it was a good battle by us the first two periods especially,” Finland captain Aleksander Barkov said. “So, we learned a lot from this game. It was our first game. It was their first too, but we will learn a lot from this one.”

Finland will have to learn quickly before playing rival Sweden in its next game at Bell Centre on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). Another loss to Sweden would be difficult to recover from, with only game remaining after that in the round-robin (against Canada on Monday).

But Finland chose to focus on the positives.

“The first two periods was a good hockey game,” forward Mikael Granlund said. “Either team could have been up 2-1, 3-1. There were good signs, and we know we have a good team. What’s up there, 6-1, it doesn’t really show what the game was.”

Despite having a defense depleted by injuries with Miro Heiskanen (knee), Jani Hakanpaa (knee) and Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body) missing the tournament, Finland held the United States’ high-powered offense in check for most of the first two periods. In fact, Finland briefly stunned the U.S. by taking a 1-0 lead when Henri Jokiharju, one of its three injury replacements on defense, finished a 3-on-2 rush at 7:31 of the first period.

Even after the U.S. tied the score at 1-1 at 10:21 of the first period when Brady Tkachuk banked a shot in off goalie Juuse Saros from the left side, Finland stuck with its game plan and controlled play for much of the second period, not allowing a shot on goal in the opening 9:05. Matt Boldy’s deflection goal at 17:04 of the second gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead, but Finland still felt good about how it was playing heading into the third.

“We got the puck behind them and made their 'D' turn and made them come 200 feet,” defenseman Olli Maatta said. “We’re really good when we make teams do that. That’s not easy. And I think the second period we had a lot of chances we could’ve scored.”

Failing to convert on those chances proved costly for Finland in the third. Maatta’s hooking penalty against Auston Matthews with 2.2 seconds remaining in the second period set the U.S. up to begin the third on the power play. The U.S. converted only 15 seconds into the third when Matthew Tkachuk’s wrist shot from above the right circle deflected off the stick of Finland defenseman Niko Mikkola and floated in past Saros to make it 3-1.

Jake Guentzel made it 4-1 only 11 seconds later when he took a pass from Matthews on the rush and beat Saros between the pads from the left circle. Brady Tkachuk completed a pretty passing play on the rush with brother Matthew and Jack Eichel at 3:00 to increase the lead to 5-1, and Finland could not recover.

“We had a good start to the game,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “The first period was really even and, actually, the second period was the best part from us. We had a couple of good chances we didn’t score. Actually, I don’t know what happened after that. The start of the third was, I don’t know how to say that. But we [weren’t] ready for that.”

Pennanen acknowledged that Finland’s coaching staff will evaluate over the next two days whether to make a change in net from Saros, who gave up six goals on 32 shots. Finland might have to make some other changes as well after managing only one goal on 21 shots against U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

Five of those shots came from Barkov and four from Artturi Lehkonen, bur their linemate Mikko Rantanen had none. And the second line of Roope Hintz, Sebastian Aho and Patrik Laine produced just one shot on goal -- from Laine in the second period.

“I think we either win or we learn,” Barkov said, echoing a mantra he and the Florida Panthers utilized on their way to winning the Stanley Cup last season. “And we learned a lot from the game we played today. 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.”

Barkov bristled, however, at the suggestion that Finland wasted an opportunity to pull off an upset to open its tournament by not taking better advantage of its chances in the first two periods.

“No, I don’t think it was like that,” he said. “Obviously, you guys are saying we were big underdogs and stuff like that. We just wanted to do our thing and play our game, and I think we got close to it, especially the first two periods, and the third one just got away from us.”