The Danes were outmanned every step of the way

By Lucas Aykroyd

KHODYNKA--Special teams are a huge part of today's hockey, and Finland proved that by scoring three times with a two-man advantage, once on a 5-on-4, and once shorthanded en route to a 6-2 win over Denmark in Moscow on Sunday.

Star defenseman Petteri Nummelin led Finland with two goals. Ville Peltonen had a goal and two assists, and Mikko Koivu and Aki-Petteri Berg added singles, while Petri Kontiola chipped in three helpers. Jesper Damgaard and Christoffer Kjaergaard replied for the Danes.

Exhibiting positionally sound defense and getting physical when required (if sometimes unnecessarily chippy), the Finns were full value for the win. Their perfect record gives them six points in Group D heading into its May Day showdown with Russia, while the hapless Danes remain pointless.

With both goalies making their tournament debuts, Kari Lehtonen recorded 17 saves for the win, while Denmark's Michael Madsen had 38 stops.

Madsen looked sharp in the early going, flashing his glove to foil Mikko Koivu's quick, high release from the slot and deftly blocking an Antti Miettinen blueline drive. But he couldn't prevent Nummelin from opening the score for Finland on the power play at 7:36, as the veteran rearguard coolly collected his own rebound after a long shot and cruised into position just above the hash marks before going high glove side. Seconds later, Niko Kapanen was allowed to walk in alone and Madsen sprawled to block both his attempts.

The Danes tied it 1-1 at 12:49 with a perfectly executed 5-on-3 power play, moving the puck precisely around their box before Damgaard hammered a low slapper past Lehtonen's glove. Then Madsen stopped Jarkko Ruutu on a partial breakaway before getting run over.

The Finns grabbed a 2-1 lead shorthanded when Mikko Koivu poked the puck off the boards past Frans Nielsen inside the Finnish blueline and sped down right wing before whipping a shot under the crossbar at 14:06. Nummelin increased Finland's lead to 3-1 during a two-man advantage with 1:12 left in the first period with another high wrister.

A sloppy Danish line change while shorthanded almost enabled Nummelin to complete his hat trick early in the second period, as Timo Parssinen flung a pass to the onrushing defenseman, but Madsen desperately flopped to foil him.

Finland made it 4-1, again enjoying a two-man advantage, as Ville Peltonen blasted a partially screened cannon from the slot over Madsen's right shoulder at 3:28 of the second period. Lehtonen kept his team's margin alive with some solid saves late in the second, including a nice glove grab with five minutes before the buzzer.

At 1:37 of the third, Kontiola dished a nice pass from behind the goal line to Aki-Petteri Berg, who was unguarded in front of the net and made no mistake to put Finland up 5-1. At 10:42, Niko Kapanen set up Jukka Hentunen for a one-timer goal from the slot to round out Finland's scoring. And with 5:17 left, Christoffer Kjaergaard tipped a Frans Nielsen pass parallel to the goal line through Lehtonen's pads to make it a 6-2 game.
 
Finland's Tuomo Ruutu and Mika Pyorala sat out versus Denmark, both suffering from a fever. Danish forward Peter Regin was kept out for precautionary reasons after incurring a knee injury in the opener against Russia, but he is expected to return versus Ukraine on May 1.

(Source: http://www.ihwc.net)

 

 

In front of the net is where you'll find Timo Parssinen

By Peter Westermark

Team Finland forward Timo Parssinen got off to a flying start with two goals in last night's 5-0win  over Ukraine. The smallish Finnish forward plays bigger than his 178 cm, 86 kilo frame would suggest and is part of a quick Finnish line with speedsters Niko Kapanen and Jukka Hentunen. Parssinen cherishes the opportunity to play at the IIHF World Championship for the third time, considering he was a late cut last year. He is coming off his first season with Timra of the Swedish Elitserien, where he starred on a line with Tre Kronor's Jonathan Hedstrom and Finnish center Riku Hahl. Parssinen finished the season with eight goals and eight assists in 26 games, with the lion's share coming early in the season as Timra vaulted into first place. As Parssinen, Hahl and other prominent Timra players got injured, the team tumbled down in the standings and got knocked out in the quarter-finals by the eventual champions, MoDo, in overtime in Game Seven. IHWC.NET's Peter Westermark caught up with the Finnish forward after practice at the Khodynka Arena.

	Parssinen scored eight goals and eight assists in 26 games with Timra this year

IHWC.NET: It's the day after the first game, and you had two goals. You must be a pretty happy dude!

Timo Parssinen: Of course I'm happy. I don't know if I scored the first goal or not, but the important thing is that it went in. That's what counts and it was a pretty good start for the team.

IHWC.NET: It feels as though your team can still improve on the power play, even though you had a couple of power play goals.

Parssinen: Yeah, we have been working on it now in practice today, and it's going to improve. For now, we will stick with the same power play lines as we had against Ukraine. But I think that there are going to be some changes when Jere Lehtinen joins the team.

IHWC.NET: How do you feel about your play at even strength? With all the penalties yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of time to get a rhythm going.

Parssinen: No, there wasn't that much. It was a pretty solid game. Ukraine defended quite well, so there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver in the neutral zone and in their zone. For our line, we were able to create some scoring chances, so it was all right. We will have to get better as the tournament goes on, but this was a pretty good start.

IHWC.NET: Is that what these two first games are about for a team like yours? Getting the win, getting some confidence...

Parssinen: Yes, and also making sure that everybody is on the same page and going in the same direction. I think we managed to do that quite well. We've got another game tomorrow versus Denmark that I expect to be in the same style, and for us the challenge is to keep improving.

IHWC.NET: Tell me about what happened with Timra this year.

Parssinen: We showed last year, both for ourselves and for everybody else, that we can play at a high level when everybody is healthy. It makes me believe that we are going to have a really good season next year.

IHWC.NET: You were also sidelined for a couple of months with a groin injury. Was it extra hard to be on the sidelines when as many as 10 players were missing from the Timra lineup?

Parssinen: It was really tough to be on the sidelines and not being able to help the team. Especially when we had a bad streak going on for a while where we lost a lot of games.

IHWC.NET: Is our role in Timra much different from what you are doing here with Team Finland?

Parssinen: I don't know, it's pretty much the same. I get to play on the power play here too, so we're expected to score some goals. Luckily, we've been able to score a couple of goals so far. It doesn't matter to me if new guys come in to the team or anything--I'll be happy to play any role on this team.

IHWC.NET: I have had the feeling that in Timra, Tre Kronor forward Jonathan Hedstrom is the guy who goes in front of the net, while you and Riku Hahl can move around and try to make the plays. But yesterday, you banged home rebounds on the power play while in front of the net.

Parssinen: We're changing roles quite a bit with Timra. Whoever got in front of the net first stayed there. We don't have those kind of fixed roles, where one guy had to be here and another there. But I'm used to standing in front of the net and have been doing it for years. I like being there, that's where things happen.

Source: http://www.ihwc.net

Today was the start of the world cup ice hockey 2007.

The first games have been played and Finland, the team that I support, had a good (as expected) start.

They played Ukraine and here is a game report:

 

Petteri Nummelin, playing in his 13th World Championship, scored Finland's third goal

By Lucas Aykroyd

KHODYNKA--In the inaugural IIHF World Championship game played at Moscow's new Khodynka Arena, Finland beat Ukraine 5-0 to gain its first three points of the tournament on the evening of April 27.

Finnish goalie Fredrik Norrena, who recorded three shutouts in Riga 2006, achieved his first goose egg for 2007 with a solid 25-save performance. Petri Kontiola led the way offensively with a goal and two assists, while Timo Parssinen chipped in two goals. Pekka Saravo, who was named Finland's Player of the Game, added a goal and an assist.

"The first game is never easy, but we showed a very good attitude, both defensively and offensively," said Finnish Head Coach Erkka Westerlund. "I'm satisfied with the win, but we must make the power play more efficient."

A beleaguered Igor Karpenko recorded 34 stops between the Ukrainian pipes.

The crowd was nearly as colorful as the multi-hued seats around this spectacular 14,000-capacity venue, as horn-honking, "Shaibu"-chanting Ukrainian fans in yellow and blue near the TV commentary section were upstaged by Finnish supporters in frayed caveman outfits.

It was a penalty parade in the early going, as referee Milan Minar called five minors in the first six minutes alone. But the  opening goal was scored by Saravo at even strength at 12:07, as the Finnish defenseman pinched in from the point, took a nice feed in the slot from Ville Peltonen, and whipped a wrister past Karpenko.

"It was a great pass from Peltonen," said Saravo. "I just closed my eyes and took the shot. It was good that it went in."

Sean Bergenheim gave Finland a 2-0 lead at 4:06 of the second period when Tomi Kallio found him all alone in front of Karpenko, Bergenheim pivoting neatly before shooting the puck past the Ukrainian goalie's blocker.

Just over three minutes later, Finland went up 3-0 when Petteri Nummelin's power play wrister slipped through a screened Karpenko's pads. After participating in this game, Nummelin has now appeared in a remarkable 13 IIHF World Championships.

Predictably, Finland's superior speed and skill forced the Ukrainians into big-time penalty trouble midway through the game. Ukrainians were squashed together in the sin bin when Parssinen backhanded home the rebound from a Saravo drive at 13:08 to make it 4-0.

"I predicted it would not be an easy game to play even at even strength versus Finland," said Ukrainian Head Coach Oleksandr Seukand. "Still, I am pleased with my players. The black spot for us was the second period and the amount of penalties we took. This is not the first time penalties have destroyed us."

Play turned chippy in the final period, but an exhilarating shorthanded breakaway goal by Petri Kontiola with 8:32 left provided a late highlight.

Finland faces Denmark next on April 29, while Ukraine will try to rebound against Russia that day.

"We can't care about people naming us as the favorites," said Finland's Jarkko Ruutu. "But we don't go out and play for second place."

In the past few months I have not been doing very much but there were some days that are definately worth mentioning. So here is a wee update once more.

February and march were filled with loads of icehockey games from the Belfast Giants. The highlight of this was definately Killer's testimonial game on 13 march where many old Giants players (including Theo Fleury) played in the Allstars team against the current Giants.

Just four days after that game it was St Patrick's day. It was my third St. Patrick's day since I live in Belfast but only the first time that I had the day off from work, so I went into town to watch the parade, which was pretty nice, and after that I went to the Falls Road to a pub where Andrea Rice would be singing. I arrived there shortly before the start of the Rugby match Ireland - Italy for the six nations tournament which I watched and at 5pm Andrea's show started.

Halfway the show she always takes a short break and this time that was filled with an Irish dancing group. I have seen a bit of Irish dancing on a dvd about Northern Ireland but this was the first time I saw it live so that was nice for a chance.

That were the main events for march and then April came. On 7 april I went together with my colleague and friend Danny from Belgium to the game Celtic - Motherwell. That meant leaving home at 6am to get to the ferry, picked up just outside the docks by our bus and then on to the ferry. The weather was pretty good so the sea was calm and it was a very nice trip over to Stranraer. After that it was almost two hours by bus to Glasgow and than just a few drinks in a pub before going into the stadium.

The game ended in a 1-0 win for Celtic which was of course good and brought them only 1 game away from winning the championship while they were 16 points ahead of the rivals Glasgow Rangers who would win their game the next day bringing the gap back to 13 points as it was before. After getting back into Belfast we had a few more pints in my favorite bar before going back home.

That was the only main event for me in april up until today.
Today I went for a walk with another colleague and friend of mine, Patricia from Germany. We first walked to Belfast castle, where we had a wee look through the garden before getting up to the top of cave hill.

After getting to the top and having a well deserved break there we went back the same direction as we came up and took a left turn in stead of a right turn just past the cave to walk down towards the zoo, and we went for a nice visit to the Belfast zoo.

It was a nice day, had only a few drops of rain and the temperature was good so I haven't needed my coat all day.

The pictures from today are already on this Space so please go ahead and watch them. There are some pretty nice ones there.

 

So far for this short update on my time here in Belfast.

Any questions? Just ask and I might consider answering them.