For the second day in a row, 18-year-old Kaapo Kakko is the talk of the tournament. A night after scoring twice in a 3-1 win over Canada, he scored three in a 4-2 win. Although two of his tournament-leading five goals so far have been empty-netters, two others have been of the highlight-reel variety.
His first goal came late in the first period on a long, high slapper through a crowd, which gave Finland a 2-1 lead. His second, the eventual game-winner, came midway through the third period, on which he absolutely undressed Slovak defenceman Martin Fehervary down low and then put a backhand through the legs of goaltender Marek Ciliak. His third, although into the empty net, was also impressive as he used one hand to fend off a Slovak checker and handled the puck with the other.
But the Slovaks, for the second night in a row, also turned in a gritty effort and put on a show for their home fans.
"It gives you energy when fans of the opposite team start cheering, so we wanted to get going as well," said Slovak defenceman Christian Jaros. "We played with a lot of energy, and we're doing a lot of good things."
Once again buoyed by a boisterous home crowd, the Slovaks came out with good energy, and just after the expiration of a power play, they opened the scoring midway through the first period. For the second night in a row, hometown boy Erik Cernak scored a goal on a bomb from the point on a feed from Andrej Sekera. Although it was not technically a power-play goal, they still enjoyed a numerical advantage in the Finnish zone when the goal was scored.
But soon after, the Finns got their first power play of the game and began pressing hard, which got their sizeable group of fans energized. Petteri Lindbohm tied it by putting in a rebound.
“You hear the Finnish fans, and it's unreal,” said Juho Lammikko. “They're so loud. It's great to play for them, and the Slovak fans are amazing. It was such a great atmosphere.”
“We defended really well and took away their good scoring chances from the middle,” said defenceman Oliwer Kaski. “I think our defence did a great job of boxing them out and our goalie made some saves.
“And then we had Kaapo!”
Kakko scored his first of the night just 1:50 after Lindholm's goal.
The middle frame was a lot more defensive without many good scoring chances, despite three power plays, until the final couple of minutes, when Slovakia began pressuring.
With 40 seconds on the clock, the Slovaks tied it on a wild play around the Finland net, literally, with defenceman Martin Marincin completely circling the goal before backhanding it in past a diving defenceman and goaltender. The play stood up to two video reviews – the original for a hand pass, followed by a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference – sending the teams to the dressing rooms deadlocked after 40 minutes.
"I think we played a good game," said Jaros. "It was close until the last 10 minutes. We skated well and battled hard, but they got that final goal, which made the difference. We have to continue to play like this, though, as we have from the start, and everything will be okay."
Down 3-2, the Slovaks tried to equalize it again and had a chance on the power play, but just couldn't get it going. The loss drops them to 1-1, but the hosts still look to be in good shape after already facing two of the strongest teams in the group.
