USA Comes Up Short to Host Finland, Will Play for Bronze + Summary
In a hard-fought, back-and-forth semifinal clash, Finland defeated the US 4-3 Saturday morning in Tampere, Finland to advance to the 2022 IIHF World Championship final.
The US will face the loser of Canada-Czechia Sunday at 7:20 am cst in the bronze medal game.
The task was going to be tough in a virtual road game for the Americans, but they stunned the mainly pro-Finland crowd only 1:04 in as Nate Schmidt's rising shot beat Finland goaltender Jussi Olkinuora for a quick 1-0 lead. Unfortunately that was the only lead the US would have.
Miro Heiskanen paced the scoring for Finland with a goal and two assists. Sami Vatanen, Joel Armia and Sakari Manninen also scored for the hosts.
Sean Farrell and Adam Gaudette scored for the US, with Gaudette's team-leading fifth goal, cutting the lead to 4-3 after the US pulled Swayman with four minutes remaining in the third.
But they couldn't get the equalizer, as the US has now lost all 11 of its semifinals at Worlds dating to 1994. Swayman made 22 saves and Seth Jones was named player of the game for the Americans.
The two starting goalies came in with the tournament's best stats. Jeremy Swayman of the US had an outstanding 0.69 goals against average and a .969 save percentage, while Finland's Olkinuora was even better, sporting a 0.50 GAA and a .975 save percentage.
These Americans deserve credit just for making it to the final four. Coach David Quinn's squad has dealt with injuries and Covid-19 woes from the get-go this year. They entered this semifinal with only four defensemen playing their natural position.
Nick Blankenburg, Caleb Jones, and Jon Merrill were out with injuries and Jaycob Megna returned home after the 3-0 quarterfinal win over Switzerland due to a family emergency.
| POLL | ||
Are you impressed with the Americans resiliency during the tournament? | ||
| Definitely | 37 | 32.7 % |
| No | 37 | 32.7 % |
| Disappointing to not have shot at gold | 39 | 34.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
