Ruotsalainen brings victory for Finland against Canada

Two goals in the regular time and another in shootout by Arttu Ruotsalainen ensured the fifth consecutive victory for Finland in its last group match against Canada in the Ice Hockey World Championship 2021 at Arena Riga in Latvia on Tuesday.

The Finns beat the Canadians in shootout by 3 goals to 2 and will face the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

The last group match for both the Finland and Canada was 2-2 draw in the scheduled period.

Canada started the risky match for them to qualify to the next round very well with an early score by Brandon Pirri at the second minute in the first period.

Fighting from the behind Arttu Ruotsalainen leveled the score at the 22^nd minute in the second period and brought back the Finns, who already ensured their quarter-finals earlier.

Maxime Comtois took the 2-1 lead for Canada again after he scored at the 29^th minutes in the second period.

But Ruotsalainen leveled the score again just four minutes before the end of the schedule time as a result the match went to extra time and finally the fate of the match was determined by penalty shootout.

Oliwer Kaski, Saku Maenalanen and Arttu Ruotsalainen scored for Finland in the shootout while Brandon Pirri and Adam Henrique scored for Canada.

“If feels good to come out with a victory,” Finnish goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, who stopped 32 of 34 Canadian shots in the game, then two of five in the shootout told IIHF.

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