One team celebrated a loss, another team pulled its goalie leading by two goals in the final 39 seconds, and another team set the record for most goals in a game.
When the dust had finally settled, Team Finland was an 11-0 winner against Team Italy, resulting in Team Slovakia winning the group and Team Sweden falling to at least seventh in the 12-team field for the single-elimination stage of the tournament.
Confused? You’re not alone.
“We tried to figure it out,” Finnish defenseman Olli Maatta said after his team’s romp over the host country put them in strong position to win the one wild card and get a bye to the quarterfinals.
By the time Finland took the ice at 4:40 p.m. local time, the formula was quite simple. Though the Finns couldn’t win the group no matter how many goals they scored, a win in regulation would give Slovakia the group and drop rival Sweden to third. Finland also knew the more it scored, the better the chances of getting the wild card.
And scored it did.
Kaapo Kakko had two goals and an assist, Mikael Granlund, Sebastian Aho and Joel Kiviranta each scored twice, Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and two assists, and Joel Armia and Miro Heiskanen each had a goal and an assist for Finland (2-0-1-0), which finished second in the group.
Fourteen players had at least one point to help Finland win for the second straight day, following a 4-1 win against Sweden on Friday.
Mikko Rantanen had three assists, and Niko Mikkola, Rasmus Ristolainen, Eetu Luostarinen and Erik Haula each had two assists. Juuse Saros, playing each end of the back-to-back, made 15 saves.
