WJC Countdown: Kapanen’s heroics etch his name in Finnish history

At the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championship, just about everything went Finland’s way.

Hosting the tournament in Helsinki, Finland came out of the round robin flying, picking up 23 goals in just four games. With a 7th place finish the year prior, the team was looking to reaffirm their place as one of the world’s top hockey countries.

The trio of Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujärvi and Sebastian Aho finished top three in tournament scoring, playing on one of the best lines in tournament history. Laine and Puljujärvi were both named to the tournament’s all-star team, alongside Finnish defenceman Olli Juolevi. With all three all-stars projected to go in the top ten of the upcoming NHL entry draft, the country’s hockey future looked as bright as it had ever been.

But above all else, it was forward Kasperi Kapanen’s overtime winner in the gold medal game that sealed the victory. Now finding himself toiling between the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, the son of former NHLer Sami Kapanen was the hero in clinching Finland’s second-ever World Juniors gold medal won on home ice.

Finland’s road to the gold medal game was anything but easy. Finishing second in Group B, they matched up against the third-place Canadians in the quarterfinal. Finland eked out a 6-5 victory, before being lined up against rival Sweden in the semifinal. After falling behind 1-0 just over 10 minutes into the game, a pair of second period goals less than two minutes apart were the difference in a 2-1 victory.

In the championship game, Finland fell behind by 1-0 and 2-1 scores, but Aho and Laine had both managed to tied it up each time. With Puljujarvi picking up a pair of assists, Finland was turning to their usual key players in order to push towards victory.

With 2:09 remaining in the third period, captain Mikko Rantanen’s power play goal tip-in goal off a point shot put Finland up 3-2. In most games, that’s usually enough to ice the victory. But with their goalie pulled, Russia maintained pressure and Andrei Svetlakov managed another deflection with just six seconds remaining in the third period to send the game to an extra frame.

In overtime, Russia controlled much of the early action, but was unable to muster a shot on net.

After picking up the puck in the corner of the offensive zone, Kapanen began skating up along the right-wing boards, back towards his own blueline. Kapanen then made a quick pivot back towards the goal line, shaking off. With teammate Aleksi Saarela driving to gain position in front of the net, Kapanen weighed his options, and chose to keep driving behind the goal. Seeing his opening, Kapanen went and simply tucked the puck home, just past the reach of sprawling Russian netminder Alexandar Georgiyev.

Watching Kapanen’s goal shows a bit of magic, selfishness and flair to win the entire gold medal on the flick of one stick. If you look at this goal over and over again, you’ll see a few things:

• When he releases the puck, Kapanen’s skates are firmly still entirely behind the Russian net as he extends his arms to complete the wraparound. It’s a motion rarely seen in high-level hockey anymore, but he was provided the perfect opportunity to pull it off.
  
• While falling in an attempt to knock the puck off Kapanen’s stick, current Philadelphia Flyer Ivan Provorov makes the slightest of contact with Georgiyev. We’ll never know if he would’ve been able to make the save otherwise, but it certainly didn’t help his chances.
  
• No one’s really expecting Kapanen to shoot. Russian forward Pavel Kraskovsky sees Kapanen behind the net and chooses to stick with guarding the high slot, likely expecting the puck to come back via a pass. Instead, Kapanen created his own scoring lane, and Kraskovsky’s last ditch effort to knock the puck off his stick is futile as he’s still a stride or two away when the puck enters the net.

With Kapanen’s heroics, Finland won their second title in overtime three years, adding to Rasmus Ristolainen’s winner over Sweden at the 2014 tournament.

Somewhat astonishingly, they’d be fighting off relegation in 2017 after finishing 5th in Group A, but stayed in the top division after a pair of wins over Latvia to end up 9th in the tournament.

@adam_laskaris

The Finnish Gold Medal team at the 2016 WJC