HELSINKI, 8 September 2004 — A late goal by Mikko Eloranta helped strong favorites Finland scrape past Germany 2-1 in the World Cup of ice hockey on Monday, sending the Finns through to the semifinals in North America later this week.
Eloranta tipped a shot from Nashville defenseman Kimmo Timonen past goalie Olaf Kolzig with less than four minutes to play, spoiling the night for a spirited German side that carried most of the play after the first period.
The game was a shadow of Saturday’s Finland-Sweden thriller that ended 4-4 in the European pool. By contrast, on Monday both sides lacked purpose at times, with scores of missed passes and frequent stoppages keeping the crowd subdued.
On Friday, Finland will play the winners of the Russia-United States quarterfinal.
“We had a real problem getting used to being the team in the driver’s seat,” Finnish winger Ville Peltonen said.
“But we were not trying to sit back, we were trying to get more players in their zone and get more possession.”
His teammate Teemu Selanne, who only mustered one shot all night, was more direct.
“It’s good there were other lines that could score the goals because we couldn’t do anything,” said the Colorado winger. “We were terrible.” Finland outshot Germany 10-3 in the first period, with Kolzig making a number of tough saves despite being screened by the Finnish forwards camped in front of him.
Germany started to control the play in the second period but it was the Finns who opened the scoring after Germany’s Andreas Renz went off for holding. A pass from the blue line by Timonen found Niko Kapanen in the corner and he slid a pass across the front of the net that winger Jukka Hentunen missed but fellow linemate Niklas Hagman flipped into the open net at 10:50.
Finland failed to build momentum from the goal and the Germans took charge. Late in the period Buffalo Sabres forward Jochen Hecht was unlucky not to even the game when he whiffed at a pass in front of the net.
Finland looked increasingly content to protect their one-goal lead in the third period but with just over six minutes left San Jose winger Marco Sturm stunned the crowd when he drove down the wing and wristed the puck past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.
However, the tie lasted less than three minutes before Eloranta put the Finns back in front for good.
“In the second and third period we were the better team... I think they were getting frustrated,” Kolzig told Reuters after the game. “It’s a great step for German hockey but it would have been huge if we could have won.”
Finalnd’s preparation for this key clash was thrown awry when New York Islanders defenseman Janne Niinimaa walked out due to a personality clash with coach Raimo Summanen. Finnish newspapers were in a frenzy on Monday after Niinimaa’s move, which was announced by the team late on Sunday.
The team cited “chemistry problems with head coach Raimo Summanen” for Niinimaa’s departure.
“The team finds Niinimaa’s decision regrettable, but will try to focus on upcoming games as well as possible,” it added,
“Crisis!” tabloid Iltalehti wrote across its front page, while Ilta-Sanomat devoted five pages to the story, including a three-day summary on how events came to a head. Iltalehti also questioned how long Summanen, known for taking a more confrontational line with his players than predecessor Hannu Aravirta, could stay in the job.
