Finland take group lead beating Italy by 3-0

Defending world Champion Finland took lead of the group B after the Lions beat Italy by three goals to nil in the Ice Hockey World Championship 2021 at Arena Riga in Latvia on Thursday.

The dominating performance brought a comfortable victory for the Finns against the Italy resulting total 10 points in four matches in the tournament.

Defender Tony Sund scored two goals- one at the seventh minute of the first period and another at 29^th minutes of second period- ensured the victory for the Finns while 9^th minute goal by Arttu Ruotsalainen helped to bag the big score.

"Of course, it feels good to get my first two goals but the main thing is we got the win and the three points," Sund told IIHF after the match.

Sund, the 25-year-old player, who played for Dinamo Riga in the KHL this season opened the scoring for Finland and played the match in the Arena Riga as like home ground.

At the beginning of the second period, the Italians had the puck in the net but Frigo’s stick was high resulting cancellation of the goal after a video review.

"We lost 3-0 but it could have been 2-1 there," Frigo told IIHF.

Earlier, in three previous matches, Finland scored victory against the USA and Norway while lost to Kazakhistan in penalty shoutout.

The Finns will face Germany in its fifth group match on Saturday.