Finland beat USA to reach Ice Hockey WC final

The host Finland beat the United States of America in semi-final of the Ice Hockey World Championship by four goals to three in Tampere Nokia Arena on Saturday afternoon to reach the final for third consecutive tournament.

Finland will face Canada in the final while USA will face Czech Republic for the bronze on Sunday.

Earlier, in the preliminary round of the tournament, Finland beat USA by 4-1 in the group B match.

Although an early goal by Nate Schmidt at second minute of the match took lead for USA, the Finns tried to come back, and Miro Heiskanen leveled the score at 17th minute.

Sakari Manninen scored the second goal for Finland at 25th minute and took the 2-1 lead but Sean Farrell scored for USA immediately at 27th minute and leveled the score again.

The Finns took lead again after Sami Vatanen scored at 30th minute and Joel Armia widened the difference at 46th minute to ensure the victory.

The USA players tried hard to come back and played with empty net for more than three minutes and created tremendous pressure on the Finns.

Although Adam Gaudette scored a goal at 58th minute but finally the USA had to leave the ground with 4-3 defeat.

Meanwhile, in another semi-final Canada beat Czech Republic by 6 goals to 1.

With their victories Finland and Canada reached the Ice Hockey WC final for the third consecutive year.

The Lions became runners-up in 2021 World Championship held in Riga and became champion in 2019 World Championship held in Bratislava.

The tournament, however, was cancelled in 2020 against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak across the world.

Earlier on Thursday, Finland beat Slovakia in the quarter-final by 4-2 to reach semi-final.

In the preliminary round of the tournament, Finland beat Norway by 5-0, Latvia by 2-1, USA by 4-1, Great Britain by 6-0, Austria by 3-0 and Czech Republic by 3-0 while lost to Sweden in tiebreaker.