Aarne Talvitie scores twice, Finland beats Switzerland 6-1 to play for gold
VANCOUVER — Being an underdog hasn’t prevented Finland from reaching the gold-medal game at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The Finns scored four goals on their first eight shots and went on to defeat Switzerland 6-1 in Friday’s semifinal. They will face the United States in Saturday’s final.
Finland was mediocre in the round-robin but then upset Canada 2-1 in the quarterfinals. That game fed the Finns’ confidence heading into the game against Switzerland.
“Sometimes in a tournament like this we are the underdogs,” said captain Aarne Talvitie, who scored a pair of goals less than three minutes apart in the opening period. “Especially at the beginning for the tournament everyone was like kind of skeptic about our playing. So, it feels really good to be in the finals. We proved to everybody we can play.”