🇫🇮 Finland 4-3 United States 🇺🇸 (OT)
World Junior Championship Preliminary Round
Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa 🇨🇦
Sunday, 29 December 2024

The plot thickens. On the strength of Tuomas Uronen’s overtime winner, Finland beat the U.S. 4-3 on Sunday at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. It was the first American loss at this tournament after two regulation-time wins.

The Kingston Frontenacs forward, who hails from Kerava, came down the right side on an odd-man rush and scored high to the glove side at 1:46. The Finns have won twice since falling 4-0 to Canada in their opener.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Arttu Alasiurua, who played a strong game and scored his second goal of these World Juniors. “We have had our struggles, but now with a win, it’s good for our team.”

The U.S. finishes off its preliminary round run with a New Year’s Eve battle against Canada, which also has a game against Germany on Sunday night. Finland confronts Latvia earlier on 31 December at the Canadian Tire Centre.

“It’s going to be cool,” said U.S. captain Ryan Leonard. “Especially being in Canada, the world’s against us. You can see it with any team we play, but it’s definitely going to be a different breed when we play Canada. It’s going to be a fun game and we should embrace the moment.”

This was a well-contested battle featuring four lead changes. Finnish goalie Petteri Rimpinen made his third consecutive start, while the U.S.’s Trey Augustine returned after ceding place to Hampton Slukynsky in the 5-1 win over Latvia. Both netminders performed admirably as final shots favoured Finland 44-33.

The U.S., the defending champions from 2024 (Gothenburg), are looking to medal for the third straight year. They also claimed Bronze in 2023 (Halifax). The Finns are in the midst of a small drought. They haven’t won Gold since 2019 (Vancouver) or any medal since 2022’s Silver (Edmonton).

It was an entertaining atmosphere as the Ottawa crowd of 16,433 serenaded the arch-rival Americans with boos and chants of “Let’s go, Finland!”

The Americans came out with speed. Cole Eiserman, the all-time leading goal-scorer in U.S. National Team Development Program history (127), tested Rimpinen twice from close range inside the first two minutes. Eiserman was in a snarly mood as he also took the game’s first penalty for boarding in the Finnish zone.

Finland drew first blood at 9:50 on a shorthanded goal. Trevor Connelly, carrying the puck through the neutral zone, turned it over to Joona Saarelainen, who sent Alasiurua back the other way. He ripped a wrist shot over Augustine’s glove.

“Our execution was a little bit off today,” Leonard said. “That goes to the D and all the forwards out there too. We’re a team. Everyone’s got to break the puck out together. It wasn’t the best of us.”

Around the 13-minute mark, with Finland shorthanded again, Alasiurua undressed the U.S. defence with a great move and cut in alone on Augustine. However, the Kärpät Oulu attacker couldn’t beat the goalie’s glove with a backhander.

At 14:20, Terrance scored his second goal of these World Juniors on a solo dash from his own blue line, snapping a shot from the hash marks past Rimpinen.

Defenceman Cole Hutson gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead at 1:45 of the second period, zinging a perfect shot high to the short side from the left faceoff dot. Hutson, who had five assists in the opening 10-4 win over Germany, is the younger brother of Montréal Canadiens blueliner Lane Hutson.

“I was walking down the wall with the puck, and I heard Lenny (Ryan Leonard) calling it for the whole way down,” said Hutson. “I really didn’t want to shoot it, but I had to get off the ice, so I just threw it at the net and it went in.”

The Finns made it 2-2 at 4:09 with a power play marker just 12 seconds into a Joey Willis slashing minor. From the slot, Jesse Kiiskinen deflected in Emil Pieniniemi’s long drive. This was Finland’s first goal with the man advantage in Ottawa.

Of ending that power play drought, Kasper Halttunen said: “It’s huge. We’ve had our chances. It’s been rolling pretty well, but just not getting the puck in. So it’s really, really helpful.”

Julius Miettinen put Finland up 3-2 at 9:19, as Halttunen stickhandled deftly in the right faceoff circle before dishing the puck to the Everett Silvertips forward for a laser under the cross bar.

Rimpinen stoned U.S. speedster Oliver Moore with his glove on a shorthanded break to preserve the one-goal lead with under six minutes left in the middle frame. About two minutes later, Gabe Perreault had the Finnish goalie beat with a deke to the forehand, but put the puck off Rimpinen’s right post.

In the third period, a fired-up Brodie Ziemer tied it up for the U.S. at 3:26, converting Teddy Stiga’s sneaky cross-crease feed. Tension mounted, as Leonard drew boos after exchanging shoves with Rimpinen.

Finland’s last win over the U.S. was 1-0 in the 2020 quarter-finals on Joonas Oden’s third-period goal and Justus Annunen’s 30-save shutout. The U.S. won the next three games, including a 3-2 victory in the 2024 semi-finals on Cutter Gauthier’s power play goal with under four minutes left.

Halttunen made it clear the Finns will not take Latvia lightly: “That’s the beauty of the game, right? Anything can happen. And I feel like in these tournaments, those smaller hockey countries are growing up a little bit. Respect for Latvia. They put their bodies on the line and it won (the game against Canada) for them.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
05:53 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Eiserman, boarding
07:56 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Kiviharju, tripping
09:50 – 🇫🇮 SH GOAL – Alasiurua (Saarelainen)
11:41 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Pieniniemi, hooking
14:20 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Terrance (Svoboda, Willis)
17:20 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Terrance, tripping

2nd Period
21:45 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Hutson (Hensler)
23:57 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Willis, slashing
24:09 – 🇫🇮 PP GOAL – Kiiskinen (Pieniniemi, Helenius)
25:41 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Halttunen, tripping
29:19 – 🇫🇮 GOAL – Miettinen (Halttunen, Kumpulainen)
32:54 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Hutson, slashing
39:31 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Nieminen, holding

3rd Period
43:26 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Ziemer (Stiga, Moore)
46:03 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Hagens, tripping
48:35 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Fortescue, holding

Overtime
61:46 – 🇫🇮 GOAL – Uronen

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇫🇮 Rimpinen (30-33)
L: 🇺🇸 Augustine (40-44)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇫🇮 14+14+15+1 = 44
🇺🇸 15+11+5+2 = 33

ROSTERS
🇫🇮 Goaltenders: Petteri Rimpinen, Kim Saarinen. Defence: Mitja Jokinen, Kalle Kangas, Aron Kiviharju (C), Daniel Nieminen, Emil Pieniniemi, Sebastian Soini, Veeti Väisänen. Forwards: Arttu Alasiurua, Kasper Halttunen (A), Konsta Helenius, Emil Hemming, Topias Hynninen, Jesse Kiiskinen, Rasmus Kumpulainen (A), Julius Miettinen, Jesse Nurmi, Benjamin Rautiainen, Heikki Ruohonen, Joona Saarelainen, Tuomas Uronen.
🇺🇸 Goaltenders: Trey Augustine, Hampton Slukynsky. Defence: Zeev Buium (A), Paul Fischer, Drew Fortescue, Logan Hensler, Cole Hutson, Adam Kleber, Colin Ralph. Forwards: Austin Burnevik, Trevor Connelly, Cole Eiserman, James Hagens, Ryan Leonard (C), Oliver Moore, Danny Nelson, Gabe Perreault (A), Teddy Stiga, Brandon Svoboda, Carey Terrance, Joey Willis, Brodie Ziemer.

Article Credit: 2025 World Junior Championship
Photo Credit: 2025 World Junior Championship – IIHF – HHOF – IOC