Notes & Quotes – CZE vs FIN for Bronze
NOTES
Good start leads to flat second period: For what seemed like the third game in a row, the Czechs looked fantastic coming out of the gate. They once again got the 1-0 lead, this time on a wonderful goal by Becher who finished off a perfectly executed 2-on-1 by Bares, who threaded him a precise pass after himself having made a nice little move at center ice to create the 2-on-1. It was a top-flight play showing great offensive acumen. But after that, the Czechs continued to fade away and this led to another second period that waned in concentration and intensity.
Finnish power: Once again, team Finland has turned throwing around the weight. Especially the bigger players will take out the body whenever the opportunity shows up.
Focus makes perfect: Finnish goaltender Topias Leinonen (2022) was an unfortunate victim of the loss to Sweden in the semifinal. Today’s focus was so succinct that he was an absolute wall. He tracked pucks like his life depended on it. The one goal against was simply an excellent play by the Czech tandem of Bares and Becher. All in all, Leinonen’s best game, on in which he made saves look routine.
What’s in a name: Second line defenseman Ales Cech (2022), third line defenseman Frantisek Nemec (2022), and fourth line winger Vojtech Polak (2022) each conducted their work quietly, with Cech and Nemec showing up as physical players with the odd strong pass here and there. They have each been foot soldiers in this tournament. None were moving the needle from a sporting standpoint, but they combined to give the team some international flair. In essence, their surnames mean “Czech person”, “German person”, and “Polish person”, respectively. Unfortunately, none of the players on the team had the name “Bronz”.
The gas ran out: In a game like this, the Czechs simply couldn’t afford to see their big line of Jiri Kulich, who was later named the tournament’s MVP, surrounded by underager Eduard Sale (2023) and big OHL forward Matyas Sapovaliv (2022) stay off the scoresheet. But stay off the scoresheet it did. They had the goal in the semifinal against the USA, but they couldn’t get anything cooking today. We’d like to say that they still produced opportunities, but even those only came sporadically. Almost ironically symptomatic was one rush the line had where it entered the zone on a 3-on-2 break, with Kulich leading the charge. Kulich simply held the puck on the left side until he launched a wrister right at the goalie from a good 10 yards away. Harmless, and that although Sale stood wide open on the other side cocked for the one-timer. Had the roles been reversed, you darn well know who’d have been getting that one-timer opportunity from whom. Sidenote: Sale is going to be special next year.
Don’t notice him if you dare: Today, as in just about every other game, first line defenseman Kasper Kulonummi (2022) has presented his smooth, solid, very mistake-free overall game. He won’t jump out at you unless you watch closely. Then you realize that he neither bends under pressure, nor does he make poor or unwise decisions. One has to wonder if you’ll quietly and unsuspectingly see him be a top 90 pick this summer.
And there he is again: Already mentioned yesterday, captain Jere Lassila (2022) was once again in the middle of everything good for Finland. His four points on the day topped linemate Joakim Kemell’s (2022) three. But it was face-offs and defensive zone coverage and a lot of safe pucks. He plays so unassumingly, yet his importance for the team has been undeniable.
Top player for Czechia – G Michael Schnattinger (2022)
Top player for Finland – F Joakim Kemell
QOUTES
Press conference CZE vs FIN
Czech forward Matyas Sapovaliv and defenseman Tomas Hamara
On what they’re feeling after the loss…
Hamara: Of course, we’re sad. It’s not a good feeling. We wanted that bronze medal. But it was a tough game and we played hard.
On how things were going for over 30 minutes until Finland took the lead…
Hamara: I think we played more defensively the first half. Once they had the lead, we had to change it up and forecheck more. I think it was effective, but we just didn’t score.
On the team’s energy in the third period…
Sapovaliv: Well, we obviously came out trying to score a goal and we believed we could do it, even right on down to the last minute although they were leading 3-1. But it didn’t happen and it’s heartbreaking.
On Sapovaliv going from a winter with Flint in the OHL back over to Europe for this tournament…
Sapovaliv: At first it was hard, but I did get into one exhibition game. But I spent some time with the coaching staff going over tactics, so I did feel good here in this tournament.
On Hamara playing against Finland after spending recent years playing junior hockey in Finland, and any ensuing trash talk…
Hamara: It’s difficult and challenging, but the motivation to play them is high. I’d be just as motivated had we been facing Sweden, but of course it’s kind of special for me playing against Finland. I really wanted to beat them. I believe in the future, we will, but not today.
My Finnish teammates from club play tried to get into my head today, but I knew that was coming. I just ignored it.
On the tournament in Germany, a neighboring country…
Hamara: I think this is a really nice city. We got to live downtown and that’s pretty cool. It was also really nice that it was so easy for our parents and relatives to come over and support us. It made it a special event.
On the importance of this tournament for their individual development…
Sapovaliv: Well, the tournament was great for us. I mean, heck, we beat Canada…
Hamara: And it was fun being with the guys. We just enjoyed it. That was important for us. We were both somewhere else this winter, so we got to be with the guys, in familiar surroundings.
Czech coach Jakub Petr
On the first line being shut down after having come through in most every game this tournament…
Petr: That was our fifth game in this tournament. And a number of our guys have been playing in Finland. And that country plays very well. So when they go the lead, we changed our game and that helped us. We had more energy. We were good on the forecheck. We got into some good shooting positions. At the end of the day, they were just the better team.
On his defensive line’s handling of the Kemell line…
Petr: It comes down to individual mistakes. It helped us to get that first goal, but then we were too passive. I took over this group of guys just before the last Hlinka Gretzky Cup and they’ve taken steps, but they’re not there yet. They knew who we were playing against and then there were those individual mistakes and that affected the momentum of the game, especially as of the middle of the second period.
I’ve got a lot of friends on the Finnish side, and they know our U18 and U20 guys pretty well. They ended up doing a better job.
On this group’s progress since last summer’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup…
Petr: I’m definitely happy and proud of what they’ve achieved and how far they’ve come. They make progress in their clubs. Even in the Czech clubs and the way these Czech clubs have been thinking about junior hockey. I told these guys after two periods that this is all part of their development and developmental journey. We’ve had a great experience here in Germany. We’ve spent something like six weeks together with respect to this tournament. So, I told them that no-one wants to lose, but that they’re still going to be proud in a couple of days. Proud of what you did to get you this far.
On what’s on dock for him next…
Petr: I’m going to spend time with my kids. One of them is even here as part of this team. Then we’ll be in Canada later this year. It’s going to be huge. I’ve mentioned already that I have a lot of friends in Finland, and I’ll tell you what, we’re going to beat them at that Hlinka Gretzky Cup over in Canada. We’re going to have a competitive group there. And sure, I like summery things and I see that the sun is shining outside right now, but by the beginning of the summer, the focus is going to be on that next tournament.
Press conference for the bronze medal game
Finnish defenseman Kasper Kulonummi and forward Aleksanteri Kaskimaki
On wearing the medal so soon after the loss to the rival Swedes the night before…
Kaskimaki: It feels great after our tough loss yesterday. We knew that we’d have bounce back hard. And hey, we did it and played a good game. I like wearing this.
On the response to falling behind early in the game…
Kulonummi: We just kept believing in our game and we’re a hard-working group. It ended up paying off.
On what this tournament meant to the guys…
Kaskimaki: It was a really great experience. We had a huge win against Canada and now there’s this bronze medal, so those are big moments for our careers. We knew we had to be prepared for these big games and we were. There were lots of little challenges.
On playing a game like the one against Canada in a building filled with NHL scouts…
Kaskimaki: You know, we left all of our thoughts on the scouts and draft stuff behind. We didn’t want it interrupting what we were concentrating on here. This was all about playing for Team Finland.
On being part of the game-winning goal…
Kaskimaki: Yep, we got a good turnover and then there was a lucky bounce on the play and the puck went in. We’ll take it.
On playing on a line with Joakim Kemell and Jere Lassila…
Kaskimaki: They are awesome guys, and they had a great tournament. They can both play really good hockey. Joakim is the goal guy. Jere really likes and excels at doing the playmaking. I just try to get to the net and skate hard.
Finnish coach Mika Marttila
On the team meeting after the loss to Sweden and the player’s attitudes before the bronze medal game…
Marttila: Yes, we had our team meeting at 11 pm last night. We had the all the kids and the members of the staff express what they were feeling about the loss to Sweden. We wanted to get it out of the system. After that, we were very confident that we would win today. This was a 3-year project for us, and this medal was the reward for all that hard work.
On the early goal by the Czechs…
Marttila: It didn’t bother us. It didn’t rattle us. We’ve been concentrating on preparing the players for just this kind of moment. In addition, we’ve already experienced coming from behind in this tournament. We knew what we could do. So, it didn’t really affect us or get us off guard.
On shutting down the Czechs’ very strong first line…
Marttila: We knew about them, but we didn’t have any type of gameplan especially planned around them. Like us, they’ve gone through a lot of games in a short period of time, so we knew that if we do our thing, it’s going to make it very hard on them, no matter who is on the ice. Again, we were aware of them, but shutting them down was all about just playing our game.
On his feelings in this moment with the bronze medal around his neck…
Marttila: It’s a great feeling, especially when we think about how this may end up being a once in a lifetime experience for a number of our kids. It may be the one chance to wear such a medal. However, this situation was not unique. This is the third time we’ve played for bronze, and we won each time so far.
On the importance of Finnish captain Jere Lassila, who had missed a large portion of the season with injury…
Marttila: Oh, he’s very important for our team. He’s a great captain and a great player. He’s a very good person as well. Ideal for wearing the “C” on his jersey. He had a knee injury roughly two months ago. He worked very hard rehabbing and couldn’t skate for a while. We talked every week and we really needed him for this tournament. And it was very important that he was here for us.
On staying out of the penalty box in light of the Czechs’ strong power play to date…
Marttila: We studied the video a lot. We knew their strong points. We naturally made it a priority to try and avoid penalties. We already learned about that prior to this game. This was something we were emphasizing. So staying out of the box and making use of our instructions ended up being of importance.
On being a small country of 5.5 million people and yet having won Olympic gold, world championship gold, and gaining a variety of medals at the U20 and U18 levels…
Marttila: The national team program works very closely in unison with the club teams. The national program also now has full-time coaches for each level. Aside from that, Finns are very committed to the sport of hockey. This is not just those working within the sport and running our programs, but also your everyday person and fan. Hockey is very important for the common person in Finland. Also, we’ve been able to create an identity. There’s a Finnish way of playing hockey and that too is very important to us.
On the step taken over the past 10-12 years…
Marttila: Yes, this is true. About 10 years ago, we put full-time coaches in place for every national team. It then took time. It didn’t happen overnight. Now we’ve been able to enjoy a certain level of success.