Team USA hadn’t seen a challenge at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship through the first five games of the tournament, outscoring opponents 38-4.
    

The cakewalk ended Saturday afternoon, and so did a shot at a gold medal.
Finland’s Aapeli Rasanen scored two goals in the third period to upset the Americans 4-2 in the semifinals at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Team USA won’t play in the championship game for the second time in 13 years and for the first time since 2008.
Finland, which also won the World Junior Championship, hasn’t won a U18 title since 2000.
“It’s a great feeling when you beat USA, and you head to the final,” said Finland coach Jussi Ahokas, whose team’s only loss was 3-1 to Canada during pool play. “But this isn’t enough for us. We want to win the gold. It’s good to have the early game and have a little more rest time. Now we have to prepare for the final.”
With less than five minutes to go, Finland took a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal by Rasanen.
Rasanen took a shot on a rush and collected his own rebound as it was caught in the skates of American defender Chad Krys.
The Americans, however, still capitalized on the power play. One minute, 22 seconds later, USA’s Kailer Yamamoto tipped a Luke Martin shot into the net to knot the game at 2-2.
But Finland thwarted the momentum when the Americans took a penalty with 62 seconds left as USA star Clayton Keller was called for a trip on Finland’s Jesse Puljujarvi, a possible Top 5 pick at the NHL Draft.
Finland netted the game-winning goal on the resulting power play when Puljujarvi garnered attention on a rush on the left side. He passed cross-ice to Kristian Vesalainen. The shot from Vesalainen produced a rebound for Rasanen to put home with 37.9 seconds remaining.
“All the positive feelings you can imagine,” Rasanen said. “I just screamed and screamed. I screamed my voice out. I don’t really have a voice right now.
“We have believed in ourselves, and we believed we can beat USA and we did it.”
Puljujarvi iced the game with an empty-net goal as he fought off a hard slash by Krys as time expired. Krys was called for a game misconduct penalty and could be facing a suspension for it.
“They slashed the whole game,” Ahokas said. “There was no calls. He’s a tough player. It could have broken his wrist. That’s a big problem. He needs lots of ice right away. It’s good that he can play (in the gold-medal game).”
The Americans now have to bounce back for Sunday’s bronze-medal game.
“You know what, it was a good hockey game,” USA coach Danton Cole said. “We knew coming in Finland was a good hockey team. They played well and hard. I thought our guys did too and battled back and forth and it went down to the wire.
“You always have to give the other team credit. It’s not just you do this, this and this and you win. That’s the facts of hockey and life.
“You come and you’re Americans and you want to win the tournament, not just do well. It’s important now to finish the right way. They have a chance to finish with a win and a medal and they should be proud.”
Finland kept pace with the Americans, with shots narrowly favoring USA 28-26. The teams traded goals in the first period from Finland’s Urho Vaakanainen and USA’s Kieffer Bellows.
“I think in the end, we outchanced them but we didn’t get the bounces,” Krys said. “It’s tough to see but I’m proud of the effort. It just didn’t go our way. I think immediately after it’s a tough time. This has been a goal of ours for a couple of years now.”

U18 HOCKEY: Finland stuns Team USA 4-2 Latest By Shaharyaracademy.blogspot.com



Team USA hadn’t seen a challenge at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship through the first five games of the tournament, outscoring opponents 38-4.
    

The cakewalk ended Saturday afternoon, and so did a shot at a gold medal.
Finland’s Aapeli Rasanen scored two goals in the third period to upset the Americans 4-2 in the semifinals at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Team USA won’t play in the championship game for the second time in 13 years and for the first time since 2008.
Finland, which also won the World Junior Championship, hasn’t won a U18 title since 2000.
“It’s a great feeling when you beat USA, and you head to the final,” said Finland coach Jussi Ahokas, whose team’s only loss was 3-1 to Canada during pool play. “But this isn’t enough for us. We want to win the gold. It’s good to have the early game and have a little more rest time. Now we have to prepare for the final.”
With less than five minutes to go, Finland took a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal by Rasanen.
Rasanen took a shot on a rush and collected his own rebound as it was caught in the skates of American defender Chad Krys.
The Americans, however, still capitalized on the power play. One minute, 22 seconds later, USA’s Kailer Yamamoto tipped a Luke Martin shot into the net to knot the game at 2-2.
But Finland thwarted the momentum when the Americans took a penalty with 62 seconds left as USA star Clayton Keller was called for a trip on Finland’s Jesse Puljujarvi, a possible Top 5 pick at the NHL Draft.
Finland netted the game-winning goal on the resulting power play when Puljujarvi garnered attention on a rush on the left side. He passed cross-ice to Kristian Vesalainen. The shot from Vesalainen produced a rebound for Rasanen to put home with 37.9 seconds remaining.
“All the positive feelings you can imagine,” Rasanen said. “I just screamed and screamed. I screamed my voice out. I don’t really have a voice right now.
“We have believed in ourselves, and we believed we can beat USA and we did it.”
Puljujarvi iced the game with an empty-net goal as he fought off a hard slash by Krys as time expired. Krys was called for a game misconduct penalty and could be facing a suspension for it.
“They slashed the whole game,” Ahokas said. “There was no calls. He’s a tough player. It could have broken his wrist. That’s a big problem. He needs lots of ice right away. It’s good that he can play (in the gold-medal game).”
The Americans now have to bounce back for Sunday’s bronze-medal game.
“You know what, it was a good hockey game,” USA coach Danton Cole said. “We knew coming in Finland was a good hockey team. They played well and hard. I thought our guys did too and battled back and forth and it went down to the wire.
“You always have to give the other team credit. It’s not just you do this, this and this and you win. That’s the facts of hockey and life.
“You come and you’re Americans and you want to win the tournament, not just do well. It’s important now to finish the right way. They have a chance to finish with a win and a medal and they should be proud.”
Finland kept pace with the Americans, with shots narrowly favoring USA 28-26. The teams traded goals in the first period from Finland’s Urho Vaakanainen and USA’s Kieffer Bellows.
“I think in the end, we outchanced them but we didn’t get the bounces,” Krys said. “It’s tough to see but I’m proud of the effort. It just didn’t go our way. I think immediately after it’s a tough time. This has been a goal of ours for a couple of years now.”

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