Eloranta puts Finns in semifinals
HELSINKI, Finland -- A late goal by Mikko Eloranta helped strong favorites Finland scrape past Germany 2-1 in the World Cup of ice hockey, sending the Finns through to the semifinals in North America later this week.
Eloranta tipped a shot from Nashville defensemen Kimmo Timonen past goalie Olaf Kolzig with less than four minutes to play, spoiling the night for a spirited German side that dominated after the first period.
Czech Republic later overwhlemed Sweden 6-1 in Stockholm and will play the winners between Canada and Slovakia while Finland face either Russia or the United States.
The Czechs, who have seemed to lack motivation since their mentor and coach Ivan Hlinka died in a car crash last month, had not been expected to win this one after losing to the Scandinavian team 4-3 during their first meeting on Wednesday last week.
Starting out surprisingly strong and ending even stronger, the Czech Republic, which skated off with an Olympic gold medal in 1998, never relinquished their lead over the Swedes, who couldn't seem to coordinate their play, offering shoddy defense, weak offense, and shaky goal-keeping by Mikael Tellqvist.
Jump-starting the Czech goal windfall in the sixth minute, Martin Straka easily slipped a shot past Tellqvist and into the net.
His feat was matched seven minutes later when Martin Havlat brought the score to 2-0.
In the second period, the Swedes made a few credible attempts to even the score, but when Czech Marek Zidlicky slammed the puck into the Swedish net in the 36th minute, the Scandinavian country had yet to land a single goal.
To the chorus of boos and whistles from the majority of Swedish fans amidst the 11,957 onlookers, Radek Dvorak scored the Czech Republic's first goal in the third period, followed six minutes later by another goal by Milan Hejduk, bringing the score to 5-0.
Tomas Holmstroem provided Sweden with its only ray of light when, in the 56th minute for the first and only time during the game, he managed to squeeze the puck past goalie Tomas Vokoun.
Just two minutes later however Hejduk scored another one for the Czech team, bringing the final score to an overwhelming 6-1.
The Finns outshot Germany 10-3 in the first period, with Kolzig making a number of tough saves despite being screened by the Finnish forwards camped in front of him.
Germany started to control the play in the second period but it was the Finns who opened the scoring after Germany's Andreas Renz went off for holding.
A pass from the blue line by Timonen found Niko Kapanen in the corner and he slid a pass across the front of the net that winger Jukka Hentunen missed but Niklas Hagman flipped into the open net at 10:50.
Finland failed to build momentum from the goal and the Germans took charge. Late in the period Buffalo Sabres forward Jochen Hecht was unlucky not to even the game when he whiffed at a pass in front of the net.
Finland looked increasingly content to protect their one-goal lead in the third period but with just over six minutes left San Jose winger Marco Sturm stunned the crowd when he drove down the wing and wristed the puck past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.
However, the tie lasted less than three minutes before Eloranta put the Finns back in front for good.
