Kapanen shines with hat-trick as Lions thrash Britain in Ice Hockey WC

Finland scored first victory in the Ice Hockey World Championship 2024 beating Great Britain by eight goals to nil at Prague Arena in Czech Republic on Sunday afternoon.

A hat-trick by Oliver Kapanen helped the Finns to earn the easy and landslide victory in the match against Britain completely dominated by the Lions.

Jesse Puljujarvi, Jere Innala, Juuso Riikola, Olli Maatta and Mikko Lehtonen also scored one goal each for Finland in the match while none of the British players, who merely created few chance, was able to successfully send the puck into the Finnish net.

Although the Finns had to wait until 16 minutes to achieve success, Kapanen started the goal festival at the 17^th minute in the first period.

Jesse Puljujarvi scored the second goal at the 22and minute in the second period followed by Innala at 25^th minute and Riikola at the 33^rd minute.

Another goal by Kapanen took 5-0 lead for Finland at the 37^th minutes and Maatta widened the gap within a span of two minutes resulting end of the second period with the score of 6-0.

The Finns continued to create pressure on Britain in the third period and Lehtonen scored at the 47^th minute and Kapanen sealed the 8-0 victory with his hat-trick at 53^rd minute.

The three-time world champions Finland, who lost to host Czech Republic on tiebreaker in the opening match in Prague late Friday night strongly came back through the massive victory.

The Lions will face Norway in their third group match on Monday.