Czech Republic and Finland battled for Bronze in the first match of the day. Even though Czech Republic had more dangerous scoring chances, they were unable to use them, which cost them their victory.

The start of the match was rather slow and both teams had problems with the quality of the shots. None of the Czech shots made it to the Finnish goalie Pyry Luukkonen and the Finnish shots were blocked by the Czech defence and rest were handled by the Czech goalkeeper Lukas Bauer. Finland got a chance on a powerplay and a penalty shot when the Czech player prevented Nico Salo’s long pass to Sami Johansson with a high stick. Unfortunately for the Finns, they didn’t score on the penalty shot and due to their static power play and effective blocking of the shots by the Czech, they didn’t score even on power play.

During the second period both teams had problems with the accuracy of their shots. Finland got another chance at a power play. Though Czech Republic tried their best to make it difficult for them to score, Janne Lamminen found room in the middle of the Czech defence and put his team to a 1-0 lead.

In the third period, Czech Republic had more dangerous scoring chances but they were unable to use them. With only few minutes left, the Czechs took out their goalkeeper and tried to score a goal 6vs5. The ball bounced dangerously in front of Finland’s goal, but their goalkeeper Pyry Luukkonen made sure that the net stayed clean. From a simple passing mistake, Finland sealed the deal as Miko Kailiala scored an empty net goal.

Best players
#73 Luukkonen Pyry (FIN)
#74 Bauer Lukas (CZE)

Watch the post-game interview with Juha Kivilehto (FIN) and Daniel Sebek (CZE)