We won! We won! Holy cloudberries batman, we won!
Can't say that it was the best hockey game I ever saw,
the players on both sides looked sluggish out there...
For the Finns, jet lag may well account for that, and for
the U.S. players, well, two words: menopause.
I thought we were lucky to get the tying goal almost
out of nothing, but perhaps it was a just reward for
the persisent forechecking by our players, especially
the three forwards on our #2 line.
And then.. the winning goal, scored by Captain K.
Good quick hands after he failed to control Ossi's
pass first time round.
Plusses and minuses for Team Finland:
+ Forechecking and hitting.
+ Kipper. Solid as ever.
+ The 2nd line was great all night long, all three
of them, OJ especially.. Neutralized the threat
from Modano's line by actually holding the play
in the U.S. end on most shifts.
+ The team spirit and the fight in them, made up
for the tiredness from travelling across the Atlantic.
- I didn't like the way we tried to cross center ice.
What's the deal with flipping the puck 40 feet in
the air? That happened way too often. Whether
that's a page out of coach Summanen's play book
or desperation caused by an overcrowded neutral
zone, I don't know, but I hope I see less of it in
the final.
- Selanne. Yeah he's a great guy and I was
impressed by the hits he dished out in the first,
but offensively he's a shadow of his former self;
not very good at shooting and his skating speed,
sadly, is but a memory of The Finnish Flash glory days.
I'd almost be tempted to put Peltonen on the first
line with Koivu and Lehtinen, but doing that, I wouldn't
know where to put Selanne because frankly he doesn't
fit on the second line either, nor on the third or fourth.
So, now all eyes on CAN-CZE and the final next week.
We Finnish fans can rest assured that the team is
still hungry for more.. We've had enough second and third
place finishes.
