Kasper Simontaival's pair leads Finland to blowout win over Slovakia
The opening game of Day 6 at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship saw Finland take on Slovakia, who are playing their final game of the preliminary round.
Finland got the scoring started early in the first period. 35 seconds into the opening frame, Los Angeles Kings prospect Kasper Simontaival put the puck over the shoulder of Simon Latkoczy to give Finland a 1-0 lead.
Just 35 seconds in, Kasper Simontaival scores the first goal of the game on a beautiful touch!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/kmyxJT9A27 TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
Just over seven minutes later, the Slovaks tied the game up at 1-1. The Finns failed to clear the puck out of their own zone and the puck came to Simon Groch, who gave it to Peter Repcik and he fired it past Juha Jatkola.
Peter Repcik buries the equalizer for Slovakia!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/IUVXpSXz6F TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
The Slovaks then made their own error in trying to clear the puck. On the powerplay, Joel Maatta picked up the turnover and ripped a shot past Latkoczy to restore Finland's lead, 2-1.
Joel Maatta finds the back of the net with the man advantage, Finland regains the lead!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/MGfp4GdGNV TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
Just before the end of the first period, New York Rangers prospect Adam Sykora got himself into some penalty trouble. The 17-year-old appeared to stick his leg out, catching the knee of Joakim Kemell. Sykora was handed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for kneeing on the play.
Adam Sύkora was issued a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for this knee-on-knee. #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/hOIqXS0PqT TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
Finland extended their lead early in the second period while on the powerplay. Kasper Simontaival was initially credited with the goal, but it was changed to Roni Hirvonen and Finland took a 3-1 lead only 24 seconds into the second period.
Goal theft! 😈#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/eLzEuWDSHl TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
Shortly after they killed off a tripping penalty, the Slovaks got on the board once again. Servac Petrovsky picked up a whiffed shot from Rayen Petrovicky and made a nice backhand-forehand move to beat Jatkola and cut Finland's lead to one.
Servac Petrovsky finds the back of the net, we're back to a one goal game!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/Vo9by5YqZY TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
The penalty-filled game continued as the Finns headed back to the man advantage. On that powerplay, Joel Mattaa potted his second goal of the game, although it took two attempts to put the puck in the back of the net after hitting the post at first. Maatta's goal gave Finland their second two-goal lead of the game.
Joel Maatta takes advantage of another power-play and gives Finland the 4-2 lead!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/nIS3eY4Vee TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 14, 2022
Approaching the final few minutes of the second period, Joakim Kemell made a pass in the Slovak zone across to Aatu Raty and the New York Islanders prospect blasted a shot past Latkoczy, who went down quite early, to make it 5-2 Finland.
Aatu Räty make it 5-2 Finland from the parking lot #Isles pic.twitter.com/iv9dlLunu1 Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
Under two minutes to play in the middle frame, Montreal Canadiens prospect Oliver Kapanen scored his first of the tournament, beating Simon Latkoczy short-side to give Finland a 6-2 lead. Check out the beautiful stretch pass by Ruben Rafkin from Finland's zone to find Kapanen at the far blue line.
Oliver Kapanen (#GoHabsGo) gets in behind everybody all alone and makes no mistake with the finish. This one is officially out of hand. 6-2 Finland #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/MXaWEfrjub Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
Slovakia made a goaltending change to start the third period, bringing in Tomas Bolo, but it didn't help stop the bleeding as Finland added a seventh goal just over six minutes into the final frame.
Matias Rajaniemi took a shot from the point, but his stick broke and the puck managed to make its way to Juuso Maenpaa, who was at the side of the Slovak net. Maenpaa quickly fed Kalle Vaisanen in front, who then buried it on Bolo to give Finland a 7-2 lead.
Kalle Väisänen (#NYR) tacks on the extra point for Finland as they make it 7-2 over Slovakia. Real heads up play by Juuso Mäenpää in front of the net #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/jG0pktAwEX Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
Slovakia managed to get one back to cut Finland's lead to four goals. Slovak captain Rayen Petrovicky chopped the puck towards the net where it was tipped in by Libor Nemec between his legs.
Libor Nemec redirect between the legs. That's filthy #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/dmSPiH6rZD Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
Kasper Simontaival scored his second of the game nearly twelve minutes into the third period. Kasper Puutio passed the puck to the front of the net and it went off of Simontaival and past Bolo to make it 8-3 Finland.
Kasper Simontaival (#LAKings) credited with his second goal of the game & Finland's fourth on the PP. It's now 8-3. Slovakia continues to shoot themselves in the foot with penalties pic.twitter.com/glpC7Lq3m1 Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
The Finns added their fifth powerplay goal of the game with less than five minutes left in the third. Kasper Puutio fired a shot off the far post and in to extend Finland's lead to 9-3.
Another PPG for Finland. That's their fifth of the night. This time it's Kasper Puutio (FLA) with an absolute bullet off the post & in. What a shot. 9-3 Finland #WorldJuniors #TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/SJ43G0pvwD Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) August 14, 2022
Finland now improves to 2-1-0-0 through three games, while Slovakia wraps up the preliminary round with a 0-1-0-3 record. Slovakia will advance to the quarter-final on Wednesday if Latvia fails to defeat Czechia later today, while Finland can claim top spot in Group A with a win over Canada on Monday.
Players of the Game
Finland: Joel Mattaa
Slovakia: Servac Petrovsky
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirν Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||