Finland to quarterfinals, Czechs to relegation group after 6-2 loss

The host team of the championship, the Czech Republic, will play in the relegation group. The Czechs lost their last game in Group A in Brno against Finland 6-2 to secure Finland´s qualification for the quaterfinals.

Team Finland was dominated in the first period, being out-shot 17-6 and out-scored 2-0. While Czech forward Jakub Vrana in two-on-one situation was denied by Joonas Korpisalo, Team Finland scored very early. Mikko Vainonen´s shot from the blueline was deflected by Rasmus Kulmala right into the net.

Five minute later the same line struck again. Henrik Haapala got the puck in close and set up an easy goal for Kulmala, his second of the game.

"It was a good game for our whole team. We played pretty well between us. I think that they tried to stop our top line, so we had more room," said Kulmala about his line´s success after the game.

In the second period, Finland added another goal to get closer for quaterfinals. The Finns went in three-on-two and Haapala´s pass was swept into the open net by Aleksi Mustonen.

The Czechs did not give up, though. They tried to beat the Finnish defence with quick efforts and at 28:35 they got a goal from Dominik Simon on the rebound. However, too many penalties made it difficult for the Czechs.

Rasmus Kulmala completed his hat trick early in the third period to calm his team down. Then, Finland too control of the game. After Jan Hudecek scored to close the score to 4-2, the Finns got two power-play goals from Samu Markkula and Aleksandr Barkov to qualify Finland for quaterfinals.

"It is huge disappointment for us. We wanted to qualify for the quaterfinals. There was the possibility if we won today but we didn´t skate well, we did not hit them and our passes were really bad," conceded Czech captain Petr Sidlik.

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