Young Lions rejoice winning back WC from USA

Finland on Sunday won the championship trophy of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Under-18 World Championship, beating the defending USA by 3 goals to 2 in the Ice Arena Traktor at Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Niklas Nordgren’s shorthanded goals brought the Finns a thrilling victory over the Americans leading to the fourth U18 gold medal for Finland. The win also seen as a sweet revenge of last year’s final results where the Finns lost to the Americans by 2-4.

The USA in the first period came back from a deficit of 2-0, but the little Lions sealed their victory in the third period exhibiting extraordinary performance.

Nordgren blocked defenceman Cameron York’s shot at the blue line and exploded down on a 2-on-1 with Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Kotkaniemi slipped it over and Nordgren hammered it into the open short side, scoring his tournament-leading eighth goal, reported IIHF.

“It was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me,” Nordgren told IIHF, adding, “I got a good pass from Kotkaniemi. I had lots of good chances to score, but, you know, one is enough.”

Rasmus Kupari and Kaapo Kakko also scored one goal each in power play for Finland while Anttoni Honka assisted in scoring two.

“It’s something you can’t describe,” said Finnish coach Tommi Niemela to IIHF, adding that “the players are having an amazing time. They believed in themselves. They understood that if we are ‘we’, we are going to win against a group of ‘me’s. Youngsters are amazing! When you look at them, the joy is real. The sorrow is real, too. There is no pretending.”

Patrick Giles and Trevor Janicke scored one goal each for the USA.

This was the fourth time the Finnish U-18 faced USA in the final and lost all the three previous games.

Earlier, the Finns reached to the tournament final beating their arch rival Sweden by 2 goals to nil in the semi-finals. The Swedes, however, won the bronze in the tournament by beating Czech Republic by 5-2.